In a new report, the International Labor Organization (ILO), a United Nations agency, warns of rising unemployment, especially in Europe, because of the European debt crisis which has brought in train austerity programs that impede economic growth. The ILO report projects global unemployment to be 202 million people by the end of the year, compared with 196 million currently. This amounts to a global unemployment rate of 6.1%.
The ILO does not see employment returning the levels seen before the global financial crisis of 2008 until the end of 2016, two years later than its previous projection.
The special report, entitled “World of Work Report 2012: Better Jobs for a Better Economy”, finds that 40% of the job seekers aged 25-49 in the developed countries are chronically unemployed people who have not worked in more than a year. Youth unemployment has also soared. In Spain, for example, figures were released last week showing an unemployment rate of nearly 25%, with almost 50% of the young people in the country out of jobs.
The report finds that the global labor market has deteriorated over the past six months, mainly because of the crisis in Europe. Two-thirds of the countries in Europe have experienced rises in unemployment.
Raymond Torres, director of the ILO Institute for International Labour Studies and lead author of the report, said, "The narrow focus of many Eurozone countries on fiscal austerity is deepening the jobs crisis and could even lead to another recession in Europe.”
The high rates of unemployment in Europe have led to angry demonstrations in Greece and Spain, and to a wave of suicides. Earlier this month, in Greece, a 77 year-old pensioner shot himself in a central square in protest against the cuts in his pension. Last Monday, a university lecturer hanged himself on a lamppost in Athens, and on the same day a 35-year-old priest jumped to his death off his balcony in northern Greece. On Wednesday, a 23-year-old student shot himself in the head.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 30, 2012
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