Youth Unemployment / The hardest hit by the global crisis says ILO

The world could face years of jobless economic recovery, with young people set to be hit hardest as global unemployment continues to rise this year, a report from the International Labour Organisation warns.

As the World Economic Forum kicks off in the Swiss town of Davos on Wednesday with a focus on growing inequality, the ILO has highlighted a “potentially dangerous gap between profits and people”.

The UN agency forecasts millions more people will join the ranks of the unemployed as companies choose to increase payouts to shareholders rather than invest their burgeoning profits in new workers.

The ILO’s Global Employment Trends report forecasts that world unemployment will rise to 6.1% this year from 6% in 2013 and will remain well above its pre-crisis rate of 5.5% for several years.

Unemployment rate: developed countries v world

It puts the youth unemployment rate at 13.1%, more than double that for the whole workforce and almost three times the adult rate of 4.6% – a record for the ratio of youth to adult unemployment.

Guy Ryder, the ILO’s director-general also highlighted rising inequality as wages fail to pick up, long-term unemployment problems intensify and progress stalls on cutting working poverty.

“Corporate profits are up and global equity markets are looking forward to another year of plenty, while at the same time unemployment and household incomes stand still,” he said.

“The modest economic recovery has not translated into an improvement in the labour market in most countries. Businesses have been sitting on cash or buying back their own stocks, rather than investing in productive capacity and job creation.”

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at 

via ILO warns young hit hardest as global unemployment continues to rise | Business | The Guardian.

The ILO’s Report: Global Employment Trends 2014 – Risk of a jobless recovery? 

Global unemployment increased by 5 million people in 2013 and, on current trends, it would rise by a further 13 million people by 2018 affecting young people disproportionately, intensifying long-term unemployment in advanced economies and interrupting earlier progress in terms of, first, participation rates second, vulnerable employment, expected to have reached 48 per cent of total employment, third, working poverty, with 839 million workers living on less than US$2 a day and finally, stubbornly high informal employment.

Tackling the employment and social gaps requires job-friendly macroeconomic policies and greater attention to labour market and social policies

With 23 million people estimated to have dropped out of the labour market due to discouragement and rising long-term unemployment, active labour market policies (ALMP) need to be implemented more forcefully to address inactivity and skills mismatch. Indeed, with more and more potential workers becoming discouraged and remaining out of the labour force, the risk of skills degradation and obsolescence is increasing. However, currently only small amounts of public spending go into active labour market measures. Even in OECD countries, which tend to have relatively advanced institutions and practices in this respect, an average of less than 0.6 per cent of GDP was spent on such measures in 2011. Estimates show that by bringing spending up to 1.2 per cent of GDP, similar to those countries that spend the most on ALMP, an additional 3.9 million jobs could be created in the Developed Economies and European Union region. Regions that currently spend the least on active labour market policies are likely to benefit the most in terms of an improved functioning of their labour markets.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at 

Source: Global Employment Trends 2014 Risk of a jobless recovery? 

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