JobsDB Moments
ILO: We Need To Create 300 million jobs globally.
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- Raymond Torres, Director of ILO International Institute for Labour Studies - |
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Despite some good signs in the economic frontier, the International Labour Organisaton (ILO) is not buying to feel good sentiment. In fact, it notes that around 300 million jobs need to be created globally to get back to how it was.
In an interview with its online portal, Raymond Torres, Director of the ILO International Institute for Labour Studies said that the labour market situation in most countries has deteriorated dramatically with millions of workers losing their job over the past 18 months and the outlook continues to deteriorate.
“In fact, the overall impact of the crisis is still unfolding and the ILO expects unemployment to rise further this year,” said Torres. “At the same time, businesses are under stress and the number of bankruptcies is growing. Vulnerable employment is also increasing, and more people are being pushed into poverty. |
What is also of concern is that the shortage of new employment opportunities is worsening: in 2009, global employment is expected to rise by between 0 and 1 per cent only.
“Some regions – including the most developed countries – are even expected to show a contraction in employment this year, noted Torres. “And in the midst of all this, we will still need to create at least 300 million jobs globally over the next five years just to maintain a pre-crisis level of unemployment.”
On the positive words concerning the global economic crisis, Torres admits that there are signs, which he refers to as “green shoots”.
“But the strength and timing of a recovery are subject to uncertainty. It is also important to make a clear distinction between economic recovery and labour market recovery,” he pointed out.
Judging from previous crises, he noted, employment returned to pre-crisis levels only four to five years after economic recovery, on average. “Long-term unemployment which takes hold is also very difficult to reverse and wages of workers take time to return to previous levels.”
Torres is also content that most developed country governments have put in place a two-pronged approach economic and employment recovery: “targeting aggregate demand through fiscal stimulus and low interest rates, and targeting the financial sector to repair balance sheets and restore credit flows”.
As of April 2009, he noted, 32 countries had announced fiscal stimulus measures (out of a sample of 40 countries reviewed by ILO).
“Approximately USD 2 trillion has been committed globally – with close to 90 per cent from G20 nations,” he said. G20 is a group of finance ministers and central bank governors from 20 economies: 19 of the world's largest national economies, plus the European Union (EU).
“While it is commendable that countries have announced and implemented stimulus efforts, there needs to be additional focus on employment and social measures in order to address the human dimensions of the crisis and mitigate the adverse impact on people and families,” Torres said.
He said the world is already seeing signs of social unrest stemming from the crisis. “The consequences for personal and family well-being, the welfare of societies, the stability of nations, and the credibility of national and multilateral governance are incalculable.
He said not enough attention has been paid to this human reality in policy-making. “We must approach the crisis with a basic sense of solidarity within and among countries, and pay adequate attention to the human dimension, as the G20 in London has called for,” Torres said.
(Source: Jobsdb Malaysia)
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