World Employment and Social Outlook 2023: The value of essential work

At the end of March 2020, 80 per cent of the world’s population lived in countries with required workplace closures. But among the hushed streets of cities and towns throughout the world, key workers left the safety of their homes to go to work. These workers produced, distributed and sold food, cleaned streets and buses to minimize the spread of the pandemic, ensured public safety, transported essential goods and workers, and cared for and healed the ill. These are the “key workers”.