More than 200 million people are expected to be rendered jobless in 2022 due to the economic devastation caused by COVID-19, the United Nations labour agency said on Wednesday, noting that women and youth workers will be the hardest-hit.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) also maintained in a new report that although the world's nations "will emerge" from the ongoing health crisis, "five years of progress towards the eradication of working poverty have been undone" nonetheless.

"We've gone backwards, we've gone backwards big time," said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder. "Working poverty is back to 2015 levels; that means that when the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda was set, we're back to the starting line."

The agency noted that the worst-affected regions in the first half of 2021 were Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and Central Asia, all victims of uneven recovery.

It added that women were "disproportionately" hit by the crisis, seeing a five per cent employment fall in 2020, compared to 3.9 per cent for men.

ILO also noted that "additional domestic responsibilities" had resulted from lockdowns which risked a "re-traditionalization" of gender roles.

Youth employment has also continued to suffer the economic downturn, falling 8.7 per cent in 2020, compared with 3.7 per cent for adults.