2002 Labour Overview. Latin America and the Caribbean
"reports there are 17 million people unemployed in the region.

The fall of employment in Latin America and the Caribbean:
The worst of the last two decades

 

The Director-General of the ILO, Mr. Juan Somavía, presented this document on December 9th at the ILO office in Lima (Las Flores 275, San Isidro, Lima.)

ILO News (Lima, Monday, December 9th, 2002)
Urban unemployment in Latin America and the Caribbean reached, in the third trimester of 2002, 17 million people, which means an average rate of unemployment of 9.2%. This, according to the ILO Labour Panorama of 2002, represents the highest urban unemployment rate registered in the last 22 years.

The urban unemployment rate of today is larger than the one recorded for the same trimester the past year and also larger than the rates of unemployment that were registered during periods of generalised recession, such as those marked by the debt crises, the Mexican devaluation and the Asian crises.

The report shows that as a result of the adjustment policies adopted to confront the slowdown in world economic growth and the crises of several economies (particularly Argentina), most economies show a slower growth rate for 2002 than that previously expected, while other countries have entered an open phase of recession.

The three first trimesters of the year show that unemployment continues to increase real wage to drop and that average productivity is also falling. All this -highlights the Labour Panorama- means that the situation of labour continues to deteriorate in 2002, which in the end means the deficit of decent work in the region continues to increase.

As we examine the unemployment trends by country the report shows that out of 12 countries that are considered, most increase unemployment in the first three trimester of the year 2002 compared to the same period of 2001. Argentina's unemployment climbs from 16.4 to 21.5, Brazil from 6.2 to 7.3, Costa Rica from 6.1 to 6.8, Mexico from 2.4 to 2.8, Peru from 9.4 to 9.7, Uruguay from 15.4 to 16.5 and Venezuela from 13.9 to 15.5. Of the six countries were unemployment decreases, Ecuador decreases it substantially (2.1%), Colombia (-0.6), El Salvador (-0.8%), Panama (-0.5%) and Chile (-0.2%).

In the countries were unemployment increased both for men and women, it did so far more for women than for men, with the exception of Argentina where the rise in male unemployment more than doubled female unemployment.

Urban unemployment of youth increases in 7 out of 9 countries where data is available and in almost all cases it doubles the average unemployment rate. Between January and September of 2002 more than one out of five young people was unemployed in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Among other data worth considering in the Labour Panorama, 2002 are:

• A continuos upward trend in informal employment. All of new employment came from the informal sector since formal employment contracted between 1990 and 2002. Out of ten new jobs generated since 1990, 7 were informal employment.
• Employment maintains its trend towards tertiary sector employment: 9.6 out of every ten new jobs were created by the service sector since 1990.
• There is a deepening of labour precariousness: only six out of ten new jobs have access to social security and only two out of every ten informal workers have access to social security.
• Average productivity in the region decreased by 1.7% while the real purchasing power of minimum wages fell by 0.9% in 2002, cutting short an upward trend that was in place since 1996. Also, the average industrial wage fell by 0.7% with more acute falls in Argentina (-7.9%), Uruguay (-8.6%) and Brazil (-2.1%).

"In short -says the report- the generalised slowdown in economic growth and the strong recession in some of the countries of the region translated into and overall worsening of labour indicators, especially an increase in unemployment and a fall in income indicators".

Projections for the year 2002 -that is January to December, imply an increase in unemployment of one full percentage point compared to the previous year, placing the open unemployment rate at 9.3%. Yet, this situation should revert in the year 2003. "For the next year -asserts the report- economic recovery should allow for unemployment to decrease to 8.6%, a percentage more in line with the average observed at the end of the past decade"

Full content in PDF format

http://www.oit.org.pe/english/260ameri/publ/panorama/2002/

 

 

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