1 Rebuilding a resilient world of work after the COVID‐19 pandemic

Chapter 1 investigates the prospects for a global labour market recovery from the COVID‐19 crisis. It presents an analysis of factors that hold back the labour market recovery. The continuing pandemic, but also macroeconomic risks such as those related to inflation, all slow down and even threaten to derail the recovery. Unequal access to vaccines and different capacity to provide fiscal policy support created a great divergence in the recovery trajectories, with high‐income countries performing much better. The chapter also warns of the risk that the damaging impact of the pandemic on jobs and livelihoods, if not quickly reversed, will of inducing long‐term structural change with enduring adverse implications for labour markets. The ILO Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work provides a blueprint for a human‐centred agenda to overcome the crisis, address existing challenges and lead to a better future.