Global Unemployment Rises to Record Numbers

In the annual employment report by the International Labour Organization, analysts said that the number of unemployed people globally rose by four million last year and is expected to rise by over five million people this year to reach 203 million. This is primarily blamed on the slow labor market for youth, and as the number of jobseekers is growing, so will the number of unemployed.

ILO Director General Guy Ryder touched on a few points saying that uncertain economic outlooks and inadequacy of counteracting policies has weakened aggregate demand. He also noted that many of the new jobs that are being created have skills that jobseekers don’t possess. Third world countries were the worst affected with East Africa, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa having the most unemployment growth.

Youth are the greatest impact on the unemployment growth globally, as about seventy-four million people in the 15-to-24 age range are unemployed. This is expected to increase due to the soft global economy. The youth have experience more long-term unemployment than ever, due to failures in their entrance into the labor market leading to prolonged unemployment.  Once their entrance into the labor market is delayed, the youth lack skills that they are expected to possess in jobs and they are at a big disadvantage.

With all of the slow economic growth, people are consuming less and taking fewer risks, further holding back the economy from increasing. In the labor market companies are struggling to hire new people or expand with creation of jobs due to this skepticism of the economy as a whole. Until there is renewed confidence in the economy and employers are looking to expand, the unemployment rate will continue to rise globally. What are some solutions to fixing this unemployment crisis worldwide, and where should it start? Statistics on the labor market worldwide can be seen with the globalEDGE Database of International Business Statistics and Country Comparator tools.