30 Apr 2012

Bleak forecast for global job market

9:28 pm on 30 April 2012

The International Labour Organisation says the global employment situation is alarming and unlikely to improve soon.

The agency says austerity measures - especially in advanced economies - are hurting job creation and warns that governments risked fuelling unrest unless they combined tighter spending with job creation.

The ILO says the situation is likely to get worse amid slowing global growth and more people entering the workforce, the BBC reports.

High unemployment has been a concern in the United States and other major economies and has hurt the global economic recovery.

"It is unlikely that the world economy will grow at a sufficient pace over the next couple of years to both close the existing jobs deficit and provide employment for the more than 80 million people expected to enter the labour market during this period," the agency said in its latest report.

The ILO report says some 50 million jobs had disappeared since the financial crisis in 2008. It predicts global unemployment of 202 million people in 2012 - up six million from last year- and another five million will become unemployed in 2013.

The report comes at a time when some of the biggest economies in the eurozone are having to cut government spending in wake of the region's debt crisis.

Data out last week shows the unemployment rate in Spain hit a record high of 24.4% at the end of March.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people have demonstrated throughout Spain against new austerity measures targeting education and health care spending.

 

The cash-strapped government has approved reforms to scrap free medicine for pensioners and charge students higher fees, AFP reports.

Spain's two biggest unions say people have marched in 55 cities with the turnout in a rainy Madrid on Sunday estimated at 40,000.