UN: WORLD EMPLOYMENT UP BUT DEPENDS ON ECONOMIC GROWTH by KHALIL HAMDANI: 03/02/08 (MaximsNews Network)

UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network / - 03 February 2008 - More people are working in all parts of the world but the job market will worsen with the slowdown in economic growth in 2008, according to the annual Global Employment Trends report of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The widespread economic growth in 2007 created some 45 million new jobs. Some 3 billion people -- 61.7 per cent of the world’s working age population -- were able to find work.

Most new jobs are in the services sector, which accounts for 42.7 per cent of world employment, compared to 34.9 per cent in agriculture and 22.4 per cent in the industrial sector.

Not all jobs are ‘“decent” says ILO Director-General Juan Somavia: “though more people are in work than ever before, this doesn’t mean that these jobs are decent jobs. Too many people, if not unemployed, remain among the ranks of the working poor, the vulnerable or the discouraged.”

The ILO estimates that 487 million workers – 16.4 per cent of all workers – earn less than the UN threshold for extreme poverty: they earn less than a dollar a day per person they support; 1.3 billion workers – 43.5 per cent – make less than US$2 per day per dependent person.

Sub-Saharan Africa has the largest share of working poor: more than half of those able to find work earn less the UN poverty line, while more than 8 out of 10 workers survive beneath the US$2 per day threshold.

Nevertheless, the situation has improved where economic growth has been sustained. The current worldwide boom in commodity demand has helped raise incomes. “Over 2 billion people, most of them poor, directly or indirectly depend on commodity for their livelihood,” notes Luisa Bernal of the South Centre.

Economic growth has meant more jobs and increased worker productivity in nearly all regions, increasing incomes and lifting millions of persons out of poverty.

In East Asia, the share of workers below the dollar per day UN poverty line has fallen from 18.8 per cent to 8.7 per cent over the past decade, while those living below the US$2 per day threshold declined from 59.1 per cent to to 35.6 per cent.

In North Africa, where worker productivity grew by more than 16 per cent in the last decade, extreme working poverty is nearly eradicated at 1.6 per cent of the employed population.

However, the ILO warns that a slowdown in the world economy could increase the number of persons unemployed worldwide by at least 5 million.

The developed countries appear to be stagnating, where job creation is at its lowest level in five years and where the number of persons unemployed has risen by 600,000 between 2006 and 2007. The credit crisis will mean 240,000 fewer new jobs, says the ILO report.

Labels: United Nations, U.N., Khalil Hamdani, Economic Development, Employment, World Economy, International Labour Organization, ILO

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