World economy may lose 51 million jobs

In the worst-case economic scenario, the Global Employment Trends report said 51 million more jobs could be lost by the end of this year, creating a 7.1 percent global unemployment rate. More realistically, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said 30 million more people could lose their jobs if financial turmoil persists through 2009, pushing up the world's unemployment to 6.5 percent, compared to 6.0 percent in 2008 and 5.7 percent in 2007. Caterpillar, Sprint, Philips, Texas Instruments and ING are among the companies that have cut thousands of jobs in response to the financial crisis and economic downturn that has spread around the world. Developing countries will suffer most from additional job losses, according to the ILO, whose governing structure includes governments, employers and workers groups. North Africa and the Middle East had the highest unemployment rate at the end of 2008, at 10.3 percent and 9.4 percent respectively. Central and southeastern Europe and the former Soviet states ended last year with a jobless rate of 8.8 percent, sub-Saharan Africa's was 7.9 percent and Latin America's was 7.3 percent. East Asia fared best of the world's regions at 3.8 percent. Labor-based approaches can generate jobs and much-needed infrastructure quite quickly in poorer countries with high levels of joblessness. VIA
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