After initially forecasting an increase in the global unemployment rate, the International Labor Organization (ILO) now expects the number of unemployed to fall by one million in 2023, according to a report published this Wednesday, which warns, however, of inequalities regional.
The number of unemployed should thus increase from 192 million in 2022 to 191 million in 2023, while the ILO still counted three million more unemployed in mid-January.
Despite the positive surprise of this review, “it reflects a stronger than expected resilience in high-income countries instead of a general recovery,” the ILO is concerned.
Certain regions of the world, made up mainly of low-income countries, have yet to return to the unemployment rate they experienced in 2019, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Africa and Arab States lagging behind in employment
This is the case of North Africa (11.2% expected in 2023 compared to 10.9% in 2022), Sub-Saharan Africa (6.3% compared to 5.7%) or the Arab States (9.3% compared to 8.7%).
These states, “already home to the most vulnerable people on the planet, face a particularly brutal combination of challenges: high inflation, rising interest rates and increased risk of debt distress,” it added.
All of these are challenges that further constrain their already constrained budget space and thus prevent developing country governments from supporting households and businesses.
By contrast, “other world regions such as Latin America and the Caribbean, Northern, Western, and Southern Europe, as well as Central and Western Asia managed to reduce their rates (unemployment, editor’s note) significantly below pre-2019 levels.” the crisis,” observes the ILO.
But in Latin America, “employment recovery has often been driven by the rise of the informal economy,” and therefore the creation of lower-quality jobs, warns Sangheon Lee, director of the ILO’s employment policy department. .
Countries whose unemployment rate has not fallen to 2019 levels, and particularly the most indebted ones, “urgently need (…) international support and multilateral coordination to address persistent deficits in terms of employment and growing inequalities “, argues the ILO.
This call comes three weeks before the “Summit for a new global financial pact” on June 22 and 23 in Paris, intended to continue discussions on financial solidarity mechanisms between developed countries and vulnerable states.
Source: BFM TV
