Unemployment, decent work deficits to remain high in 2018 – ILO

The International Labour Organisation, ILO, has projected that the global unemployment rate and decent work deficits will stay at persistently high levels in many parts of the world in 2018.

The ILO Director-General Guy Ryder said this in a report titled the “World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2018 in Geneva.

He said the World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2018 noted that the global unemployment rate has been stabilizing after a rise in 2016.

“It is expected to have reached 5.6 per cent in 2017, with the total number of unemployed exceeding 192 million persons.

“As the long-term global economic outlook remains modest despite stronger than expected growth in 2017,” he said.

Mr Ryder also said the report attributes the positive trend between 2017 and 2018 mainly to the strong performance of labour markets in developed countries.

He added that is where the unemployment rate is projected to fall by an additional 0.2 percentage points in 2018 to reach 5.5 per cent, a rate below pre-crisis levels.

The ILO boss said in contrast, employment growth was expected to fall short of labour force growth in emerging and developing countries, but has nevertheless improved compared to 2016.

“Even though global unemployment has stabilized, decent work deficits remain widespread: the global economy is still not creating enough jobs.

“This means additional efforts need to be put in place to improve the quality of work for jobholders and to ensure that the gains of growth are shared equitably,” Mr Ryder said.

ILO Economist and lead author of the report, Stefan Kühn, noted that vulnerable employment was also on the rise and the pace of working poverty reduction was slowing.

Mr Kühn said the report highlights the fact that the significant progress achieved in the past in reducing vulnerable employment has essentially stalled since 2012.

According to him, this means that almost 1.4 billion workers are estimated to be in vulnerable employment in 2017, and that an additional 35 million are expected to join them by 2018.

“In developing countries, vulnerable employment affects three out of four workers. The report noted that working poverty continues to fall in emerging countries.

“This is where the number of people in extreme working poverty is expected to reach 176 million in 2018, or 7.2 per cent of all employed people,” he said.

The ILO Economist also noted that in developing countries, progress in reducing working poverty was too slow to keep up with the expanding labour force.

He said that the number of workers living in extreme poverty was expected to remain stubbornly above 114 million for the coming years.

“That is affecting 40 per cent of all employed people in 2018,” he said.

Mr Kühn, however, also highlight the fact that participation rates among women remain well below those for their male counterparts.

He added that women are also more likely to face inferior quality jobs and lower salaries.

 

NAN