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| [PHOTO: UNifeed] |
Geneva: Unemployment increased by a further 4.2 million over the
course of 2012, according to the Global Employment Trends 2013 report released in Geneva.
The Director-General of the International Labour
Organization (ILO), Guy Ryder, told reporters that "after two years of
decline in the number of unemployed around the world, 2012 saw a resurgence of
unemployment."
The report examines the crisis in labour markets of both
advanced economies and developing economies.
The epicentre of the crisis has been the advanced economies,
accounting for half of the total increase in unemployment of 28 million since
the onset of the crisis. But the pronounced double dip in the advanced
economies has had significant spill-overs into the labour markets of developing
economies as well.
Ryder said only a quarter of the latest increase of 4
million in global unemployment in 2012 has been in the advanced economies,
while three quarters has been in other regions, with "marked negative effects
in other developing regions, most notably East and South Asia, and Sub-Saharan
Africa."
Looking at 2013, the ILO Director-General said "the
trends are very much in the wrong direction."
The report projects a further 5.1 million joining the ranks
of the unemployed this year and a further 3 million in 2014.
Ryder said young people "remain at the very sharp end
of the jobs crisis, particularly badly affected by it."
The estimations, he said, are of "just under 74 million
young people unemployed globally", and "there could be another half
million added to that figure by 2014."
In percentage terms, 12.6 percent of youths around the world
remain unemployed
The final chapter of the report urges a policy rethink in
order to achieve a more sustained recovery in 2013 and beyond.
Ryder said uncertainty in policy making needs to "give
way and play more coherent and predictable policy orientation", placing
employment "at the centre of policy making, in a manner that is in line
with previous commitments, but not so much with previous action."
The report estimates the quantitative and qualitative
indicators of global and regional labour markets and discusses the
macroeconomic factors affecting the labour markets in order to explore possible
policy responses. -UNifeed