Equal lack of opportunity: Global job market squeezes the old and the young
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UNITED NATIONS, New York: Young people are increasingly unable to get a foothold in the global labor market, and a work force that is rapidly growing older is finding less job security, according to an analysis of employment trends.
The analysis, by the United Nations, was to be debated at a meeting of the Commission for Social Development that began Thursday and is focused on "promoting decent work and employment for all."
The analysis, released Wednesday, found that unemployment had increased significantly since 1995, despite robust economic growth averaging 3.8 percent annually in the past decade and a 16.5 percent increase in the number of people with jobs to 2.9 billion.
The number of unemployed people reached a high of 195.2 million in 2006 and the global unemployment rate rose to 6.3 percent from about 6 percent in 1995.
"The most sobering fact is that employment is becoming less and less secure," said the Iranian deputy UN ambassador, Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi, who heads the commission.
Today in Business with Reuters
The analysis concluded that stiff competition under increased globalization had led to reduced job security, a reduction in job-related benefits, and a diminished role for organized labor.
"Precarious working conditions are now the rule rather than the exception in many contexts," Danesh-Yazdi said.
Almost half of the world's unemployed are under age 25, although they make up only 25 percent of the working- age population, according to the analysis.
Between 1995 and 2005, youth unemployment rates increased from 12.1 percent to 13.7 percent, about three times that of the general population in many areas.
"At the same time, unemployment rates are dangerously high for persons with disabilities, who along with migrants and indigenous peoples face discriminatory treatment in the work force that continues unabated," Danesh- Yazdi said. As many as 80 percent of the disabled in some countries lack jobs.
In addition to more informal employment, there is also more self-employment and short-term contractual employment, he said.
"There is mounting evidence that economic growth is less effective in reducing poverty in the face of rising trends in inequalities," Danesh-Yazdi said. "These forces combined have created a world where young people without privilege and wealth are unable to get a foothold in the labor market, and older persons whose proportion throughout the world is increasing rapidly enjoy less and less security for a lifetime of work."
The commission also would be examining shifting job opportunities.
"While the industrial sector remains about the same," Danesh-Yazdi said, "agriculture has declined and the services sector has grown."
Jobless rolls rise a bit in U.S.
The number of newly laid off workers filing for jobless benefits edged up slightly last week but still remained at levels signaling a solid labor market, The Associated Press said in Washington.
The Labor Department said Thursday that 311,000 newly jobless workers applied for benefits last week, an increase of 3,000 from the week before.
Even in the face of a six-month slowdown last year, layoffs did not increase in most industries although the troubled housing and auto sectors have suffered job losses.
