ILO says only decent jobs can sustain world economic growth, tackle poverty

ILO says only decent jobs can sustain world economic growth, tackle poverty

	Published : Thu, 25 Jan 2007 00:17 By : Agencies Print this Story

GENEVA (AFX) - Job creation has not kept track with economic growth, and governments and the international community must do more to ensure that new jobs are sufficiently well paid to help tackle poverty, the International Labour Organisation said.

More people are working than ever before, with an estimated global working population of 2.9 bln people over the age of 15 by the end of 2006.

But despite this gain, the number of unemployed also remains at a record high of 195.2 mln, the ILO said in its annual Global Employment Trends survey.

In addition, over 1.0 bln people still earn less than the equivalent of 2 usd a day and there are not enough decent and productive jobs to lift them above the poverty line.

'The strong economic growth of the last half decade has only had a slight impact on the reduction of the number of workers who live with their families in poverty,' said ILO director general Juan Somavia.

The global unemployment rate was 6.3 pct in 2006, almost unchanged from the previous year.

'This confirmed the trend of the past several years in which robust economic growth has failed to translate into significant reductions in unemployment or poverty among those in work,' the report said.

In 2007, the global economy is expected to grow by 4.9 pct and unemployment is set to remain at around last year's level.

'The persistence of joblessness at this rate is of concern, given that it will be difficult to sustain such strong economic growth indefinitely,' the ILO warned.

'To make long-term inroads into unemployment and working poverty, it is essential that periods of high growth be better used to generate more decent and productive jobs. Reducing unemployment and working poverty through creation of such jobs should be viewed as a precondition for sustained economic growth,' the report argued.

The global labour market remains skewed by gender imbalances, with just 48.9 pct of working-age women employed in 2006 (defined as being 15 years old or above), against 74.0 pct of men.

The ILO noted that both global output and labour productivity continued to grow in 2006. Citing estimates by the International Monetary Fund, it said global output grew by 5.2 pct in the year while global labour productivity rose by 3.4 pct.

'Once again, as has been the case for the last ten years, economic growth was associated more with a rise in productivity than with increasing employment,' it said.

This is not in itself a negative development as long as higher productivity leads to higher earnings for workers -- 'which is not always the case,' it cautioned.

Population growth is another factor which can sometimes impede labour market developments and earnings standards, particularly in the poorest regions of the world.

In Africa for example, total employment has increased by 26.7 pct over the last decade, but the working age population grew by 30.1 percent in the same period.

Many of those Africans who are in work are still classified as the working poor, earning just 2 usd or less every day, and are not able to lift themselves out of this situation by the fruits of their labour, the report said.

'With high population increases and a huge decent work deficit, growth would have to be in the double digits to really result in more and better jobs,' it argued.

In the developing world, the problem is less population growth but rather population ageing, especially when coupled with youth unemployment.

Overall, both the number of unemployed and the unemployment rate declined in what the ILO terms Developed Economies and the European Union, to 30.1 mln and 6.2 pct respectively in 2006 from 32.9 mln and 6.8 pct in 2005.

However, youth unemployment remains on average more than double that of adults, representing 'a waste of potential that societies cannot afford in the long run.'

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