The Employment Worries

As the economic slowdown advances 4 million youths joined the bandwagon of unemployed in the global front, which originally was 193 million at the beginning of 2012 keeping the developed economies as the epicenter of the crisis. The 25% of the unemployed youths is from developing countries whereas; East Asian, South Asian and Sub Saharan African youth constitute 75% of the unemployed regime. 

The recent ILO report on Global Employment Trends 2013, 39 million people have abandoned the labor market because of the job prospect unavailability, since 2007 which resulted in a 67 million job gaps till date. Experts look for a moderate output growth in 2013-2014 and this growth will not show in the labor market index, which will witness a rise of 5.1 million in 2013 and an extra 3 million in 2014, which will make the 202 million unemployed in 2013 to 205 million in 2014.

Major EU countries are focusing on civil service job cuts in a huge amount. Bulgaria (5.5% of between 2008 and 2012), Cyprus (5000), France (replacement freezing scheme directly affecting 30,400 civil employees), Greece (reduction target up to 20% in 2015), Ireland (reduction of 24,750 staff), Romania (replacement for 1 staff for 7 leaving), UK (nearly 40, 0000 jobs cut by 2014).

The developed economies and the EU will have the most number of unemployed people with 9.2% of unemployment in 2013, and 9.5% in 2014. The number of workers living in extreme poverty has reduced throughout the global crisis with the number of people living in moderate poverty declining in this time frame. This is a phenomenal change!

The Asian economies are also on the same track.  Throughout 2012 the East Asian labor market remained indolent. Employment in the East Asia expanded only by a 0.5%! The reports say that East Asia witnessed a 21.8% growth in unemployment from 2007 to 2012.

The unemployment rates were higher among men rather than in women. In East Asia rate of unemployed youth increased up to 0.3% in 2012 from 2011. South East Asia and Asia pacific together witnessed an increase in unemployment from 4.6% to 5.2% in 2012. In Asian countries there are women who don’t take up a job because of the cultural and traditional reasons.

Long term unemployment has increased due to the economic slowdown which is 31.3% in the US and 39.4% in Japan. Prior to the crisis rate of long-term unemployment was 28.5% it increased to a 33.6% exclusively in developed countries and EU. Long term unemployment affects the skill sets and competency of the job seeker which will result in difficulty in finding a new job.

There is a global slowdown in Labor Force Participation in which European Union faces a dip close by 1% point which will recede further. People will drift away from the labor market due to the long-term unemployment and weak economic growth. In consequence of that, the employment to population rate has already stopped down to 4% in a few countries with the job creation rates being lower than ever.

The working population also has their own share of worries. The number of working people in extreme poverty all around the world is 397 million, added to that is  472 million workers struggling to meet their basic needs!