ILO Warns of 202 Million Unemployed in 2012

Bulgaria's Employment Agency reported a total of 376 000 unemployed and 10 000 job vacancies by end-February 2012. Photo by Sofia Photo Agency

The International Labor Organization (ILO) has warned about a global unemployment rate of 202 million people in 2012.

The projected unemployment rate for 2012 constitutes an increase of 6 million people from 2011, according to the ILO's World of Work Report 2012.

"Our preliminary figures for 2011 point to a total of 196 million of unemployed, with an increase of 6 million to 202 million in 2012, and an increase of 5 million to 207 million in 2013," said Raymond Torres, Director of the ILO's Institute for International Labor Studies, at a press conference in Geneva.

"This means reaching an unemployment rate of around 6.1% in 2012," Torres cautioned.
The ILO's World of Work Report 2012 revealed that around 50 million jobs had been lost since the 2008 financial crisis.

"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 over 80 million people expected to enter the labor market," the report of the Geneva-based ILO said.

The ILO warned that the trends were particularly worrying in Europe, where about two-thirds of the countries had registered growth in unemployment since 2010.

It noted that labor market recovery had also stalled in major economies such as Japan and the U.S.

The document said that the job offers were not good enough to meet the needs of a growing and better educated workforce in places like China, while workers in the Arab world and Africa were still facing acute job shortfalls.

The ILO's report for 2012 found that the trend was leading to an increased risk of social unrest in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The document indicated a decrease in the risk of social unrest in Latin America, where job prospects had improved.

The ILO argued that the difficult access to credit, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises in advanced economies, and the austerity measures implemented to "calm financial markets" were at the bottom of the deteriorating situation on the labor market.
As regards Europe, the 2012 report recommended that authorities reconsider the activities of the European Investment Bank with a view to facilitating loans to boost growth.

The experts stressed the need to review the objectives of EU structural funds to help support employment, rather than focusing on the development of rural areas.

Meanwhile, Bulgaria's Employment Agency reported some 376 000 unemployed and some 10 000 job vacancies by end-February 2012.

The Institute for Market Economics (IME) confirmed that the unemployment rate was expected to increase further by the end of the year.

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