UN labor agency says 27 million people became unemployed in 2009, urges nations to create jobs

UN: 27 million people became unemployed in 2009

DAVOS, Switzerland — Twenty-seven million people around the world lost their jobs in 2009, the U.N. labor agency said Wednesday, warning of a jobless recovery in a report released on the opening day of the World Economic Forum.

About 12 million of the newly unemployed were in North America, Japan and Western Europe, the International Labor Organization said. The jobless jumped by nearly four million in both Eastern Europe and Latin America, while unemployment rates were more stable last year in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

The figures point to the need for a “global jobs pact” to boost employment around the world, the ILO said.

“Avoiding a jobless recovery is the political priority of today,” ILO chief Juan Somavia said. “We need the same policy decisiveness that saved banks now applied to save and create jobs and livelihoods of people.”

In an 82-page report, the Geneva-based agency said it expected unemployment to remain high through 2010, with perhaps an additional 3 million people in the rich world losing their jobs or unable to find employment as they enter the job market.

Not all the unemployed were fired from jobs. The ILO said youth unemployment has increased by over 10 million in the last two years, the worst surge since the agency began compiling global statistics in 1991.

To address the problem, the ILO wants governments to adopt a two-pronged approach of employment creation and better unemployment benefits, even if the latter may prove a disincentive for some people looking for jobs.

It said the global unemployment rate was 6.6 percent last year, but that the true scope of the problem was much worse because over 600 million workers and their families were surviving on less than $1.25 a day. Another 200 million were hovering just above the international poverty line.

And while many workers in the United States and rich nations may fret over their next paycheck, their conditions are invariably better than in other places in the world. The ILO said working conditions were deteriorating especially in areas of low labor productivity, such as sub-Saharan Africa.

The ILO timed its report for Wednesday’s start of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, where 2,500 business and political leaders will spend five days debating financial reforms, job creation strategies and other key elements of economic recovery.