19 January 2016 (UN News): Despite falling unemployment in some developed economies, the global jobs crisis is likely to continue for at least the next two years, especially in emerging economies, topping 200 million by 2017, the United Nations labour agency warned today, calling for urgent steps to boost jobs.
Employment outlook weakened
An additional 1.1 million jobless will likely be added to the global tally in 2017.
The unemployment rate for developed economies decreased from 7.1 per cent in 2014 to 6.7 per cent in 2015, but in most cases these improvements were not enough to eliminate the jobs gap that emerged due to the global financial crisis.
Moreover, the employment outlook has now weakened in emerging and developing economies, notably in Brazil, China and oil-producing countries.
Vulnerable employment
Job quality remains a major challenge. While there has been a decrease in poverty rates, the decline in working poor in developing economies has slowed and vulnerable employment still accounts for over 46 per cent of the total, affecting nearly 1.5 billion people.
Vulnerable employment is particularly high in emerging and developing economies, hitting between half and three-quarters of the employed population, with peaks in Southern Asia at 74 per cent and sub-Saharan Africa at 70 per cent.
The report also shows that informal employment, as a percentage of non-agricultural employment, exceeds 50 per cent in half of the developing and emerging countries with comparable data. In one-third of these countries, it affects over 65 per cent of workers.
