Global labour market-doubtful future for many, UN study
03 Jun '06
2 min read
The current global labour market is marked by a widening gap between unprecedented opportunity for some and growing uncertainty for many, with “working poverty” affecting nearly half of all workers in the world, according to a new United Nations report.
“Technological progress, if applied in ways that promote inclusion rather than exclusion, could increase productivity and make material poverty history within a generation,” according to the study – Changing patterns in the world of work – presented to the 95th International Labour Conference of the UN International Labour Organization (ILO) currently underway in Geneva.
“The main means for ensuring an inclusive character to the growth of the global economy is the way in which work and labour markets are organized and governed. Recent history is however disturbing. The employment intensity of growth has slipped back globally,” it says.
The report points out that the global workforce is growing rapidly. Today, over 3 billion people are either working or looking for work, a number expected to swell by over 430 million by 2015. Almost all these new entrants will come from developing countries.
Hundreds of millions of new jobs will be needed over the next decade. Economies will have to create on average more than 43 million new jobs each year to reduce global unemployment, which reached 192 million people in 2005 – its highest level ever – up from157 million in 1995, according to the report.
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