Investors, governments urged to create jobs responsibly, warned against greed

Manila: Governments and private investors must create jobs and fuel growth with social responsibility not greed so that the world economy will not totally collapse, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said.

"Fiscal consolidation efforts must be carried out (by governments and private investors) in a socially responsible manner, with growth and employment prospects (not greed and profit) as guiding principles," ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said during the release of ILO's report entitled "Global Employment Trends 2012: Preventing a deeper jobs crisis."

"Job creation in the real economy must be our number one priority," said Somavia, adding that 400 to 600 million jobs must be created in the next ten years.

Grim scenario

Painting a grim scenario, ILO reports said that global unemployment in 2011 could swell from the current 197 million to 225 million, with 27 million more unemployed than at the start of the 2008 economic crisis in developed countries.

Unemployment rate at 6 per cent could rise to 6.9 per cent, ILO warned.

At the same time, 10 million more jobs should be created for 10 million new workers emerging every year, ILO said.

Vulnerable workers

Moreover, decent jobs must be created for some 900 million workers who are living on or below $ 2 a day, a poverty level, to elevate their status so that they can contribute properly to growth, ILO said.

About half of the 900 million working people live below the US$1.25 extreme poverty line, ILO said, adding, "There has been a marked slowdown in the rate of progress in reducing the number of working poor."

Some 74.8 million youth aged 15-24 were also unemployed in 2011, an increase of more than 4 million since 2007, ILO said, adding, the global youth unemployment rate, at 12.7 percent, remains a full percentage point above the pre-2008 crisis level.

Among women, 50.5 per cent are in vulnerable employment, a rate that exceeds the corresponding share for men (48.2), ILO said.

In all, vulnerable employment globally was estimated at 1.52 billion in 2011, an increase of 136 million since 2000 and of nearly 23 million since 2009, ILO said.

ILO's general directions

Giving general directions for growth and job creation, ILO said that policy making "should be done in a way that does not put the sustainability of public finances at risk".

Reacting to a series of recent bail-outs after the 2008 economic meltdown, ILO said, "Additional public support measures alone will not be enough to foster a sustainable recovery."

Short-lived recovery

Recovery in 2009, after the 2008 economic meltdown in developed countries "has been short-lived," ILO admitted, adding that three years of continuous crisis cut down labour and economic activities worldwide.

Warning of a new economic tsunami coming from the Euro debt crisis, ILO said it must have a "quick resolution" to help cut global unemployment by one million in 2012.

"Whether we recover or not from this crisis will depend on how effective government policies ultimately are. Policies will only be effective as long as they have a positive impact on peoples' lives," ILO said, adding that healthy jobs and sustainable growth are everybody's responsibility to "maintain social cohesion".