Restoring full employment as a global priority

With social unrest and unemployment being widespread worldwide, there is an urgent need to restore full employment as a global and national priority goal.

UNEMPLOYMENT has reared its ugly head to become arguably the world’s biggest economic and social problem once again. The situation today is not unlike the Great Depression in the late 1930s and early 1940s, when millions were thrown out of work.

Lack of jobs was associated with unrest then, and some historians think it contributed to World War II. It is now a major factor in street protests in Europe and unseated political leaders in Egypt and elsewhere.

Now, as then, there is confusion in intellectual and policy discussions on what has caused, and how to tackle, unemployment.

Global unemployment is now slightly above 200 million. It grew by 4.2 million last year and will do so by another five million this year, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

There are 28 million more unemployed people today than in 2007, when the global financial crisis started. But the figure climbs to 67 million as a “global jobs gap” if we include those who chose to stop looking for jobs.

Globally, 73 million young people are unemployed, a 12.6% rate. But in some countries, 30% to 40% of the young are jobless and thus susceptible to frustration and rebellion.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor

via Tackling the global jobs crisis.

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