Wednesday, January 21, 2015

ILO: Global Unemployment to Increase in Next Five Years

1/21/2015

GENEVA – The global job crisis is set to get worse over the next five years, according to an International Labour Organization (ILO) report which estimates that in 2019, over 212 million people will be jobless, as compared with the current 201 million.

The document “World Employment and Social Outlook – Trends 2015,” published on Tuesday, warns that increase in unemployment in the coming years could possibly lead to an increase in inequality and social conflict.

“More than 61 million jobs have been lost since the start of the global crisis in 2008 and our projections show that unemployment will continue to rise until the end of the decade. This means the jobs crisis is far from over, so there is no room for complacency,” ILO Director-General Guy Ryder said.

The report estimates that in 2015, the world will have three million more unemployed people.

If new labor market entrants over the next five years are taken into account, an additional 280 million jobs would have to be created by 2019 to close the global employment gap caused by the crisis, according to the document.

Young people, especially women, remain disproportionately affected by unemployment.

Young workers between the ages of 15 and 24 had a global unemployment rate of almost 13 percent in 2014, when about 74 million people from this age-group were seeking work.

Unemployment rates for the youth are almost three times higher than of adults, a situation that Ryder described as somber.

Rise in youth unemployment is common across all regions and is taking place despite improving education levels, contributing to social unrest.

ILO research chief Raymond Torres said that it has been observed that social unrest increases where youth unemployment rises.

Civil unrest was seen to shoot up at the beginning of the crisis in 2008, and currently global unemployment rates are 10 percent more than they were before the crisis.

In certain developed countries, unemployment has been decreasing and occasionally recovering to pre-crisis levels.

In southern Europe, unemployment is receding slowly, though from overly high rates, according to the report.

In contrast, after a period of results better than the global average, the situation is deteriorating in certain developing and middle-income regions, such as Latin America and the Caribbean, China, Russia and some Arab nations.

In Latin America, after an initial recovery after the crisis, the growth rate in the region has gone down considerably, which in turn affects the job market, the report says.

Unemployment continued its upward trend, especially in countries that depend on export of natural resources.

Unemployment among men continues to be significantly lower than among women – 5.3 percent and 7.7 percent respectively in 2013 – though the difference has reduced since the beginning of the decade.

South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa account for three-fourths of all vulnerable employment, or unpaid family workers and own-account workers, in the world.

The report also says income disparity will continue to rise, with the top 10 percent of the richest accounting for 30 to 40 percent of all income and the bottom 10 percent earning only between two and seven percent.

“If low wages lead people to consume less, and investment remains subdued, this obviously has a negative impact on growth,” said Ryder, adding that inequality not only hampers economic development but also blocks social mobility and increases social discontent.


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