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International Labor Organization: Global Economic slowdown may force workers into poorly paid jobs while global unemployment expected to see a slight increase

ILO: global economic slowdown would likely increase economic and social disparities.

Image Credits: istockphoto.com/ sansara

The International Labor Organization’s (ILO) recent report projected that the current global economic slowdown would likely increase economic and social disparities.

The World Employment and Social Outlook Trends 2023 report, released on January 16th, warns that this economic slowdown “means that many workers will have to accept lower quality jobs, often at very low pay, sometimes with insufficient hours.”

The United Nations labor agency has forecast that global employment will grow by just one percent in 2023, which is less than half the level in 2022. In addition, the number of unemployed people worldwide is also expected to increase slightly, by around 3 million, as per the ILO report.

As a result of geopolitical tensions, including the conflict in Ukraine, disruption of the supply chain, and uneven recovery from COVID-19, economies worldwide are experiencing inflation and low growth—the first episode of stagflation—as mentioned in the report.

This will lead to a rising cost of living, exacerbating the problem for low-income groups. (UN News)

The report explained: “Progress in poverty reduction achieved over the previous decades has largely faltered, and convergence in living standards and work quality is coming to a halt as productivity growth slows worldwide.”

Richard Samans, Director of the ILO’s Research Department, said: “Real wages we project for 2022 to have declined by 2.2 percent in advanced countries, and of course, Europe makes up a significant proportion of advanced countries, versus a rise in real wages in developing countries.”

Furthermore, the report calculates that the global job gap’s size to be 473 million in 2022. The report projected significant variations in regional 2023 labor market prospects; Africa and the Arab states are expected to see around 3 percent employment growth. In contrast, Asia and the Pacific are projected to show a 1 percent annual employment growth.

ILO’s Assistant Director-General for Governance, Rights, and Dialogue, Manuela Tomei, emphasized that, from a gendered angle, the unequal development of the global jobs market is a significant concern.

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