The Economic Crisis in Asia: It’s about real people, real jobs

When the financial crisis predictably turned into a jobs crisis, the Asia-Pacific region found itself facing mass unemployment. As many as 100 million people in Asia could be unemployed this year, according to ILO estimates. Allan Dow, ILO press officer, reports from Thailand.

BANGKOK (ILO Online) – The humid evening air in Bangkok is taking its toll on Noi, a 46 year old maid, as she finishes the washing up. Next she must bathe her employer’s two children and prepare them for bed. But Noi also has other things on her mind.

Working for a Thai-Western couple in the capital for nearly three years, Noi is less concerned about the hard work and more concerned about her future. Her employer has been out of work for three months, and if he can’t find work soon Noi could also be out of a job. With an unemployed husband and two school-age children of her own, Noi is the family’s breadwinner. She can’t afford to be out of work for very long. She’s not alone.

“It is estimated that as many as 100 million people in Asia could be unemployed this year. It’s unprecedented,” says Mr. Gyorgy Sziraczki, a senior economist with the ILO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.

The ILO has pointed out that during these times of financial crisis and rising unemployment it is people like Noi – those at the lower end of the income scale – who will be hardest hit. Many of them, especially those in the so-called ‘informal’ economy, a shadowy area with few formal statistics, have little if any savings – and the countries in which they live often have inadequate social protection for anyone, let alone those working in un-regulated and un-monitored occupations.

As a region with two-thirds of the world’s poor, there is a growing consensus in Asia and the Pacific that social protection – with a social ‘floor’ – is required in order for its people to recover from the worst recession in generations. But to be effective it needs to reach those who need it most.

“Few countries in the region have adequate unemployment insurance schemes,” says Ms Sachiko Yamamoto, the ILO’s Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific. “So in extraordinary times like we are now experiencing, extending social protection to the informal economy becomes critical. It means working not just with Governments, but also with employers’ and workers’ organizations.”

In Geneva, at the ILO’s 2009 International Labour Conference (ILC), leaders from many countries delivered presentations to a special Global Jobs Summit – an integral part of this ILC – to add their views about the need for a different approach to this crisis than those seen in the past. Many agreed that social protection is key to recovery and that the ILO must be seen as a major contributor.

“Our economic policies aim at rapid growth, equitable social development, creation of jobs and expansion of a social safety net,” Ms Sheik Hasina, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh told delegates in a video address. “We welcome (the ILO) to join us to develop cost-effective social safety packages for Bangladesh.”

This jobs crisis has resulted in a clarion call from all sections of society for a coordinated response that goes far beyond better regulation of finance and credit. As delegates at the ILC worked toward the creation of a jobs pact, Employer’s representatives said that while the world needs regulation in a variety of areas to emerge from the crisis, more than anything it needs regulations that make sense and don’t place further pressure on businesses already struggling to survive.

“We need the right regulations, intelligent regulations,” said Mr. Yogendra Kr. Modi, Indian Advisor and Substitute Employers Delegate to the International Labour Conference, and Member of the ILO Governing Body. “If there are more regulations, the people who will be hit will be small and medium enterprise. The banks will not lend to them. Money will become scarce.”

Workers’ representatives at the ILC see the need for a paradigm shift that will focus more on jobs. A global jobs pact would help to ensure that the needs of workers are at the forefront of responses to the crisis.

“In this Global Jobs Pact we must adopt an approach that enhances workers’ protection and triggers demand in order to encourage economic recovery by ensuring the fair distribution of income to workers,” said Mr. Nobuaki Koga, the General Secretary of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation.

The Conference noted that a recovery in the jobs market could lag several years behind a recovery in the world’s financial sectors. But there is a consensus that the way forward must not be the way of the past. The Global Jobs Pact is a roadmap that could finally reveal the path to decent and dignified work for all.