The emergence of a middle-class in the developing world, surpassing 40 per cent of the workforce, could potentially play a stronger role in the global economic recovery, says the Global Employment Trends report of the International Labour Organisation. But the study warns that an adverse international trade scenario that continues to hurt occupations dependent on exports and volatile financial flows that affect inward investments could dampen the prospects of an alternative engine of growth. There was a rapid reallocation of workers from low to higher productivity activities in many sectors prior to the 2007-08 financial crisis and the global meltdown, resulting in reductions in rates of working poverty and vulnerable employment. These structural changes, which lost momentum in subsequent years, have been aggravated by the resurgence of the crisis in 2012. The lack of avenues for higher productivity also means that jobs are not moving out of agriculture into the services sector as fast as before. Of particular concern is the prospect of long-term unemployment that young workers face. The current slowdown in economic activity is expected to push another half a million young people out of employment by 2014, adding to the existing 73.8 million. Overall unemployment, currently at 6.5 per cent, is forecast to rise in the current year and the next. Regions that have managed to avert an increase in unemployment have experienced a worsening in the quality of jobs, raising the number of those living below the poverty line.
The advanced economies of Europe have been at the epicentre of the global jobs crisis, accounting for half of the rise in the number of the unemployed since the 2007 meltdown. The uncoordinated policies of fiscal reform and austerity in eurozone countries grappling with the sovereign debt crisis have caused a massive socio-economic upheaval at home and contributed in no small measure to the bleak world scenario. The region has not heeded calls from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for the adoption of policies to stimulate growth and employment. If anything, the eurozone’s response to the crisis has been characterised as too little too late. The spillover effects of Europe’s 2012 wave of recession have been felt in many parts of the world. In particular, China’s slowest rate of growth since 1999 and India’s in a decade account for a reduction in Asia’s GDP growth rate. While beggar-thy-neighbour policies in global trade would only accentuate the crisis, policies to enhance skills and better guarantees of social protection in developing countries would go a long way to augment employment-generating growth.
Keywords: global economic recovery, Global Employment Trends report, global jobs crisis, International Labour Organisation, GDP growth rate, debt crisis, global debt crisis, economic activity, global meltdown
India or for that matter even USA should first tune their educational system to enable youth to prepare for constantly changing technologies. Also economic policies of export and import should be aligned towards strengths and weaknesses of the nation instead of blindly copying what others like China or USA do. For example IT industry gave ample scope for high earning jobs because educated in India could fit in during 1995-2005, while depending on IT alone for export landed India into trouble due to fall of US and European economies of late. Another example is that instead of exporting iron ore, India should have exported steel by setting up more plants. Similar actions would have generated more jobs in our country. Even agriculture's export-potential was not seen as food processing, storage was not encouraged to the extent they should have been.
the strength of middle class in india has increased considerabily but it has not resulted in the development of the whole country. umemployment is still very prevelent in india. vocational education is going to play a very important role in the development of the country
The engine of growth as pointed by ILO in the Global Employment trend
position business team players who are not share holders as a
replaceable object.Are we only looking at responsibility to run a team
as an undefined object? India, no matter what our teacher told us in
our childhood and school, India is not an equal country. With equality
we do not demand equal distribution of wealth generated among all but
equal opportunity to work and equal application of work laws on all.
This does not mean that workers in a business team are less patriotic
Indians. It means that for a fair progressive work culture the workers
need equal treatment if not equal money.
What this informative good editorial misses as essential is the
corporate financial reforms.In most cases the system designed keeps
the 99 % employees delinked with the growth parameter in shape of
collective money and collective profit generated.This means a clear
deliberate gap between the wheel of consumption and the cycle of
production.During Production the score board in the factories
indicating audit is tempered and manipulated to ease out profit as
blood money to Tax Heavens.
More and more people world over losing jobs due to economic slowdown across the globe means with it, is the civilization getting engulfed with more and more 'hunger'. In fact, hunger is prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, but as per the report of United Nations' World Food Program (WFP), the menace is also growing among workers of capitalist countries like the United States. This indicates that rather than adopting a theory focusing on the growth of private capital, need of the hour is to reorganize the global economy to meet social needs. Further as you have suggested,“..policies to enhance skills and better guarantees of social protection in developing countries would go a long way to augment employment-generating growth”. So there is no doubt that coherent and coordinated policies of fiscal reforms together with hardcore austerity measures can only make the sagging economy getting rejuvenated, thereby reviving job market like the one in the pre-global meltdown era.
I dont foresee any sustainable global recovery without a drastic change
in the present neo-liberal policies being pursued all over the world!
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