LONDON (Reuters) – Global job growth is expected to slow to 1% this year, less than half the 2022 level, due to the effects of war in Ukraine on the economy, high labor inflation and the tightening of monetary policies by central banks, estimates the International Labor Organization (ILO) in its latest report published on Monday.
The Geneva-based organization previously forecast job growth of 1.5% for 2023.
The number of unemployed is expected to increase slightly by three million in 2023 to reach 208 million, bringing the global unemployment rate to 5.8%, the ILO points out in its report.
“Due to slowing global job growth, we do not expect to be able to make up for losses incurred during the COVID-19 crisis until 2025,” said Richard Samans, director of the organization’s research department. and report coordinator.
The progress made in reducing the number of “informal” jobs – that is to say most often without job guarantees, with low wages and no social protection – is also likely to be reversed in the years to come, according to the ILO.
“The current downturn in the global economy risks forcing more workers into lower quality, low-paid, precarious jobs lacking social protections, thus deepening the inequalities exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis.” read in the report.
“Furthermore, as prices are rising faster than nominal labor incomes, the cost of living crisis is likely to push more people into poverty.”
The situation could get even worse if the global economy slows down, the ILO adds.
(Matthias Williams in London and Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber in Geneva, French version Laetitia Volga, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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