Slowdown likely to crimp workers' choices, ILO says

The global economic slowdown is likely to force more workers to accept lower quality and poorly paid jobs that lack job security and social protection, according to the latest report by the International Labour Organization.

This new situation will contribute further to the inequalities worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, the ILO's World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2023 report said.

The report, which was released on Monday, said global employment growth will be only 1.0 percent this year, less than half of the 2022 level.

Meanwhile, global unemployment will rise slightly this year by around 3 million to 208 million. The ILO cites the moderate size of the projected increase largely to the tight labor supply in high-income countries.

It also said job quality "remains a key concern" and "decent work is fundamental to social justice".

Moreover, a decade of progress in poverty reduction faltered during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite a nascent recovery in 2021, the continuing shortage of better job opportunities is likely to worsen.

The current slowdown means that many workers will have to accept lower-quality jobs, often at very low pay and sometimes with insufficient hours. At the same time, as prices rise faster than nominal labor incomes, the cost of living crisis risks pushing more people into poverty.

"The need for more decent work and social justice is clear and urgent," ILO Director-General Gilbert Houngbo said.

"But if we are to meet these multiple challenges, we must work together to create a new global social contract. The ILO will be campaigning for a Global Coalition for Social Justice to build support, create the policies needed and prepare us for the future of work."

The report attributed the deteriorating labor market mainly to emerging geopolitical tensions and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, uneven pandemic recovery, and continuing bottlenecks in global supply chains.

"Together, these have created the conditions for stagflation, simultaneously high inflation and low growth, for the first time since the 1970s," the report said.

Gender gap

Women and young people are faring significantly worse in the labor market, with the global labor force participation rate of women standing at 47.4 percent last year, compared with 72.3 percent for men.

"This 24.9 percentage point gap means that for every economically inactive man, there are two such women," the report said.

Young people aged between 15 to 24 face severe difficulties in finding and keeping decent jobs, and their unemployment rate is three times that of adults.

Richard Samans, director of the ILO's research department and report coordinator, said the slowdown in global employment growth means that losses incurred during the pandemic might not be recovered before 2025.

"The slowdown in productivity growth is also a significant concern, as productivity is essential for addressing the interlinked crises we face in purchasing power, ecological sustainability and human well-being," he said.

The report also said Europe and Central Asia are hit particularly hard by the economic fallout from the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

CHEN WEIHUA in Brussels

chenweihua@chinadaily.com.cn