The global economy may be on the mend, but the International Labor Organization says the recovery has not improved the global employment picture. In a new report released this week, the U.N. labor advocacy group says unemployment around the world is rising, especially among young people.
The World Bank says growth in high income countries will fuel the global economic recovery - with overall growth expanding 3.2 percent in 2014 - then 3.5 percent by 2015.
But the U.N.’s International Labor Organization says those prospects have not helped the world’s unemployed.
Guy Ryder is the ILO's Director General.
“The bottom line figure for 2013 is that there are nearly 202 million people around the world unemployed, and that represents an increase of nearly five million on the previous year," said Ryder.
The Geneva-based group says the bulk of the increase came from East and South Asia, which represents nearly half of the additional job seekers, followed by sub-Saharan Africa and Europe.
The International Monetary Fund’s Christine Lagarde says growth remains too weak to boost employment.
"Overall, as I said, the direction is positive, but global growth is still too low, too fragile and too uneven. Moreover, even as it is, or as we forecast that it will be, it is not enough to create 200 million jobs that are needed by people who are looking for a job everywhere in the world," said Lagarde.
Based on current trends, the ILO says the world’s jobless will grow another 13 million by 2018 - with youth unemployment rising nearly three times faster.
“Young people are the particular victims of unemployment: 74.5 million of the unemployed, aged between 15 to 24, that is one million more than the year before," said Ryder.
On a more positive note, the U.N. agency says the number of working poor is declining. But it says about 800 million workers - or more than a quarter of the world’s labor force - still live on about two dollars a day or less.
