Emergency global jobs compact considered to deal with unemployment

5 June 2009

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has stated that it could consider establishing a global jobs compact designed to address its own market projections for 2009; these reveal a further increase in the number of unemployed, working poor and those in vulnerable employment.

Director-general of the ILO secretariat, Juan Somavia, said that the ILO’s annual international labour conference, held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 3-19 June, would consider an emergency “global jobs pact” designed to promote a coordinated policy response to the global jobs crisis.

The ILO’s Global Employment Trends Update, May 2009, has revised upwards the organisation’s unemployment projections to levels ranging from 210 million to 239 million unemployed worldwide in 2009, corresponding to global unemployment rates of 6.5 and 7.4 per cent respectively. The report said 2009 would represent the worst global performance on record in terms of employment creation.

“We are seeing an unprecedented increase in unemployment and the number of workers at risk of falling into poverty around the world this year”, Somavia said. “This is cause for grave concern. To avoid a global social recession we need a global jobs pact to address this crisis, and mitigate its effects on people. The choice is ours and the time to act is now.”

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