U.N.: Youth struggling in global market

U.N.: Youth struggling in global market

	Published : Thu, 08 Feb 2007 17:34 By : Agencies Print this Story

UNITED NATIONS (AFX) - Young people are increasingly unable to get a foothold in the global labor market, and the rapidly growing older workforce is enjoying less job security, according to an analysis of employment trends. The U.N. analysis will be debated at a meeting of the Commission for Social Development that begins Thursday and is focusing on 'promoting decent work and employment for all.' The commission was set up to implement the plan to combat poverty adopted at the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995.

According to the analysis, which was released Wednesday, unemployment has increased significantly since 1995 -- despite robust economic growth averaging 3.8 percent annually in the last decade and a 16.5 percent increase in the number of people with jobs to 2.9 billion.

The number of unemployed reached a historic high of 195.2 million in 2006 and the global unemployment rate rose to 6.3 percent from about 6 percent in 1995.

'The most sobering fact is that employment is becoming less and less secure,' said Iran's deputy U.N. ambassador Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi, who chairs the commission.

According to the analysis, stiff competition under increased globalization has led to reduced job security, a reduction in job-related benefits, and a diminished role for organized labor.

'Precarious working conditions are now the rule rather than the exception in many contexts,' Danesh-Yazdi said.

According to the analysis, almost half of the world's unemployed are aged 15 to 24, although they make up only 25 percent of the working-age population.

Between 1995 and 2005, youth unemployment rates increased from 12.1 percent to 13.7 percent -- about three times that of the general population in many areas.

'At the same time, unemployment rates are dangerously high for persons with disabilities, who along with migrants and indigenous peoples face discriminatory treatment in the workforce that continues unabated,' Danesh-Yazdi said. As many as 80 percent of the disabled in some countries don't have jobs.

In addition to more informal employment, there is also more self-employment and short-term contractual employment, he said.

'There is mounting evidence that economic growth is less effective in reducing poverty in the face of rising trends in inequalities,' Danesh-Yazdi said.

'These forces combined have created a world where young people without privilege and wealth are unable to get a foothold in the labor market, and older persons whose proportion throughout the world is increasing rapidly enjoy less and less security for a lifetime of work,' he said.

The commission will also be examining shifting job opportunities.

'While the industrial sector remains about the same,' Danesh-Yazdi said, 'agriculture has declined and the services sector has grown.'