ILO DIRECTOR-GENERAL WARNS OF "UNPRECEDENTED JOBS CRISIS"

ILO Director-General Juan Somavia hailed the decision of the WEF to place on its 2006 agenda an item on creating future jobs, and urged the world's top business and government leaders attending the Forum to consider urgent steps for tackling a worsening global jobs situation.

In his statement, Mr. Somavia warned that the global jobs crisis was a growing concern in terms of its impact on markets and incomes, and a threat to the credibility of democracies around the world. He noted that putting job creation, global employment, new skill development and labour mobility on the WEF agenda marked a major step forward in raising awareness among world leaders of the urgency of this issue.

"This crisis isn1t going unnoticed on the streets of rich and poor countries alike", Mr. Somavia said. "Increasingly, political leaders are hearing the voices of people demanding a fair chance at decent jobs and new opportunities to find and keep work. Yet far too often, those opportunities just aren't there."

Mr. Somavia said this "opportunity gap" took a heavy toll on the lives of women and men and their families, not only because it meant that millions of people might not have enough or even any income, but also because having decent work affects people's dignity, their sense of self worth and the stability of their families.

"Decent work is at the heart of the economic and social concerns of all people", Mr. Somavia said.

The ILO Director-General said the global jobs crisis was illustrated by a number of factors */:

- Half of all the workers in the world - some 1.4 billion working poor - currently live in families that survive on less than US$ 2 a day per person. They work in the vast informal sector - from farms to fishing, from agriculture to urban alleyways - without benefits, social security or health care.

- Unemployment in terms of actual people out of work is at its highest point ever and continues to rise. In the last ten years, official unemployment has grown by more than 25 per cent and now stands at nearly 192 million worldwide, or about 6 per cent of the global workforce.

- Of these unemployed, the ILO estimates that 86 million, or about half the global total, are young people aged 15 to 24.

- When people cannot find work at home in their communities and societies they look elsewhere. In the present environment, labour migration easily becomes a source of tension, not to speak of trafficking and other similar activities.

"One might ask whether the recent global economic growth is sufficient to offset the jobs crisis", said Somavia. "But the straight answer is no. Despite robust economic growth of 4.3 per cent in 2005, the global economy is failing to deliver new jobs for those entering the job markets. We will need to create some 40 million jobs each year over the next decade just to keep up with the growing numbers of workers who are seeking work."

The ILO leader proposed five concrete steps to address this crisis. They include:

Shifting economic and social policies to put decent work at the centre of national and international development efforts and creating a new balance between economic and social policies that stresses macroeconomic stability, adaptability and security.

Second, promoting employment-rich, sustainable economic growth as a means of global as well as local economic development to create lasting, decent jobs.

Third, creating the right policy and regulatory environment to encourage competitiveness and enterprise development in every country and promote entrepreneurship, innovation and productivity and highlighting the role of small enterprise in job creation.

Fourth, expanding training, lifelong learning, education and other means of enhancing human capacities, with a particular focus on young people. "If we can reduce the youth unemployment rate by just half, we will add at least US$ 2.2 trillion to the global economy", Mr. Somavia said.

Finally, promoting better international governance to integrate the efforts of governments, business, trade unions and other stakeholders in civil society with the purpose of reducing poverty and creating jobs.

"The global jobs crisis is one of the biggest security risks we face today", Mr. Somavia said. "If we choose to continue along the present path, the world risks becoming more fragmented, protectionist and confrontational. A continued lack of decent work opportunities, insufficient investments and under-consumption lead to an erosion of the basic social contract underlying democratic societies: that all must share in progress. Many people interpret the lack of decent work opportunities as the absence of an ethical compass in policy-making. It is time to revisit the commitments made by the global community to promote social inclusion and jobs as the basis of poverty reduction, and respect for fundamental principles and rights at work. This is the foundation of decent work. It is time to come together and deliver on those commitments. Tackling the global jobs crisis will require nothing less."

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*/See Global Employment Trends Brief, January 2006, International Labour Office, Geneva (available on-line at www.ilo.org/trends).