The Covid-19 crisis is continuing to hit jobs hard around the world, AFP quotes the United Nations as saying in a report, warning it could take years for employment levels to reach pre-pandemic levels.

Blaming the impacts of Covid variants like Delta and Omicron and uncertainty around how the pandemic will evolve, the UN's International Labour Organization projects a significant deficit in working hours in 2022 compared to before Covid-19 emerged.

This year, 5.9 per cent of workers globally, or some 207 million people, are expected to be officially registered as jobless, which is better than in 2021 and especially 2020, but still up from 186 million in 2019, according to ILO report.