ILO: Unemployment, social crisis looms in Asia
22 Apr 2009, 1715 hrs , AGENCIES
MANILA: Asia faces the risk of a prolonged labor market recession and social crisis that could take much longer to shake off than the current economic downturn, the International Labor Organization said on Wednesday.
ILO senior economist Gyorgy Sziraczki said 23 million people in the region are expected to lose their jobs this year because of the global economic crisis.
That would result in a 5.9 per cent unemployment rate - or 113 million jobless people - from 4.8 per cent or 90 million in 2008, with a growing labor force exacerbating the challenges.
Even more dramatic is the massive shift this year of some 60 million workers from the formal to the informal sector, where there is less job and social protection, he said in a speech at an ILO conference in Manila. In 2008, some 1.08 billion Asians were in informal employment.
Falling incomes could see a rise in child labor, a swelling of the ranks of the poor, less out-of-pocket spending for health care and a host of other hardships, Sziraczki said.
People in absolute poverty, or those who survive on $1.25 a day, could increase by 62.3 million this year in the region, while there is concern that the number of workers just above the extreme poverty line could rise.
Asia spends the least among regions on social protection - 2.2 per cent of gross domestic product, less than even Africa's 2.8 per cent of GDP, Sziraczki said. ``There is a risk of a long labor market recession and a deep social crisis.''
22 Apr 2009, 1715 hrs , AGENCIES
MANILA: Asia faces the risk of a prolonged labor market recession and social crisis that could take much longer to shake off than the current economic downturn, the International Labor Organization said on Wednesday.
ILO senior economist Gyorgy Sziraczki said 23 million people in the region are expected to lose their jobs this year because of the global economic crisis.
That would result in a 5.9 per cent unemployment rate - or 113 million jobless people - from 4.8 per cent or 90 million in 2008, with a growing labor force exacerbating the challenges.
Even more dramatic is the massive shift this year of some 60 million workers from the formal to the informal sector, where there is less job and social protection, he said in a speech at an ILO conference in Manila. In 2008, some 1.08 billion Asians were in informal employment.
Falling incomes could see a rise in child labor, a swelling of the ranks of the poor, less out-of-pocket spending for health care and a host of other hardships, Sziraczki said.
People in absolute poverty, or those who survive on $1.25 a day, could increase by 62.3 million this year in the region, while there is concern that the number of workers just above the extreme poverty line could rise.
Asia spends the least among regions on social protection - 2.2 per cent of gross domestic product, less than even Africa's 2.8 per cent of GDP, Sziraczki said. ``There is a risk of a long labor market recession and a deep social crisis.''
