ILO: Job recovery still lags in Asia-Pacific region

MANILA, Philippines—Despite a sharp rebound in the economies of many countries, job recovery in the Asia-Pacific region continues to lag behind growth, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said.

The agency foresaw “little change” in unemployment in many Asia-Pacific countries which are enjoying rapid economic growths in 2011. It pegged the global unemployment rate at 6.1 percent, or 203.3 million people without jobs.

“Overall, the employment outlook is uncertain, with youth unemployment, vulnerable employment, working poverty and a lack of social protection among concerns facing policymakers,” the ILO said in its “Global Employment Trends 2011: The challenge of a jobs recovery” annual employment trends survey.

In Southeast Asia and the Pacific, the crisis affected the quality of employment more than the quantity in some economies, it said.

“Although unemployment is now below or at pre-crisis levels in some countries, regional unemployment has only edged down slightly, from 5.2 percent in 2009 to 5.1 percent in 2010, and is expected to show little change in 2011,” it said.

“Vulnerable employment has increased and youth unemployment is an issue,” the ILO added.

The report said the growth in employment had not matched that of the economy “and full and productive employment needs to become a core macroeconomic policy goal.”

Moreover, it said, focus should be made on job quality, “in particular creating a stronger link between productivity growth and wage growth.”

The report cautioned countries in the region that the huge inflow of foreign capital “is a key challenge to both growth and jobs, bringing dangers, such as asset bubbles and inflation.”

“In spite of a highly differentiated recovery in labor markets across the world the tremendous human costs of the recession are still with us,” ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said on the eve of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“There is one common challenge; we need to rethink our standard macroeconomic policy mixes and make quality job creation and decent work a central target of macroeconomic policies, alongside high growth, low inflation and balanced public budgets,” Somavia said.

“We must not forget that for people the quality of work defines the quality of a society,” he added,

The ILO said 78 million young people (aged 15-24) were unemployed worldwide in 2010, or well above the 2007 pre-crisis level of 73.5 million but down from 80 million in 2009.

The global youth unemployment rate was 12.6 percent in 2010, 2.6 times the adult unemployment rate.

“Policymakers should remember that the future competitiveness and sustainable development of their societies depends on creating opportunities for young people today,” said Sachiko Yamamoto, ILO Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific. –Philip Tubeza, Philippine Daily Inquirer