Amidst the lowest growth level in sub-Saharan Africa in more
than two decades, a report predicts unemployment will rise to 201-million
worldwide.
The ranks of the world’s jobless are expected to grow this
year due to slow growth, political and economic uncertainty and a lack of
investment, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Thursday.
Unemployment is rising in major emerging economies,
especially those reliant on commodity exports such as Russia, South Africa and
Brazil, the United Nations agency said.
Due to the failure to create jobs, global unemployment is
forecast to increase by 3.4-million people in 2017, bringing the total to
201-million, it said in its annual report World Employment Social Outlook.
“That corresponds to an increase in the rate of unemployment
in the world from 5.7% in the year that has just closed to 5.8% in 2017, and
this is a tendency driven by deteriorating labour market conditions,
particularly in emerging countries,” ILO director-general Guy Ryder told a news
briefing.
“We have a situation in which, despite relatively high cash
holdings, companies seem uncertain about investment. Investment levels are not
where they need to be,” he added.
Migration impact
Globalisation and trade liberalisation are increasingly
questioned, Ryder said, noting that the intentions of the incoming US
administration of Donald Trump were a “major cause of uncertainty”.
Long-term unemployment remains stubbornly high in Europe,
Canada and the United States, the report said. At the same time, social unrest
and a lack of decent wages are prompting job-seekers to migrate from developing
regions.
“Migration is an essential part of the world of work, it’s
an essential part of stimulating future growth, sharing prosperity, making our
global economy more inclusive,” said Ryder, a former head of the international
trade union ICFTU.
“The irony, dilemma, paradox of our time is that at a moment
when the economic case for migration, taken globally, has probably never been
stronger, it seems that the social and political obstacles to migration are
becoming even higher.”
Major commodity-exporting economies are hardest-hit by
insufficient jobs.
“For instance, we note an increase in the unemployment rate
in the Russian Federation, South Africa, Brazil ... and some levelling off at
least in Saudi Arabia and again also in Indonesia,” said ILO senior economist
Steven Tobin.
Latin America and the Caribbean remain scarred by recent
recessions, while sub-Saharan Africa is in the midst of its lowest level of
growth in more than two decades, the report said.
Latin America’s unemployment rate is set to rise by 0.3% in
2017 to 8.4%, largely due to the slowdown in Brazil, the continent’s largest
economy, it said.
Source: Reuters
