BANGKOK (ILO News) -- Despite encouraging progress in cutting poverty and improving the working lives of people in Asia under the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), unemployment reached a new record high in the region while jobs growth remained “disappointing”, says a new report from the International Labour Office (ILO) issued here today.  

What’s more the report, “Labour and Social Trends in Asia and the Pacific 2005”, says new data show that some three quarters of the world’s poor– or close to 2 billion people subsisting on less than the equivalent of US$ 2 a day—live in Asia .  

The new study was issued on the eve of the United Nations World Summit in New York to be held on 14-16 September. The summit is the biggest gathering ever to be mounted by the UN, and will discuss efforts to reduce poverty, among other issues. A host of key Asian leaders are expected among some 160 heads of state who will be attending.  

The new ILO study provides a stark analysis of a growing “employment gap” in the Asia region, says the creation of new jobs has failed to keep pace with the region’s impressive economic growth. What’s more, the ILO report says that between 2003 and 2004 employment in Asia and the Pacific increased by a “disappointing” 1.6 per cent, or by 25 million jobs, to a total of 1.588 billion jobs, compared to the strong economic growth rate of over 7 per cent.  During the same period, the total unemployed edged up by half a million reaching 78 million, the fifth consecutive year-on-year increase since 1999.  

In addition, underemployment remains widespread. It manifests itself in many forms: millions are working involuntary less than full time or are taking jobs below their qualifications or skills. And many public enterprises are overstaffed.  

Young people aged 15 to 24 are bearing the brunt of this employment deficit, the report says, accounting for a disproportionate 49.1 per cent of the region’s jobless although they make up only 20.8 per cent of the labour force. Generally, the ILO said youth unemployment is two to three times that of adults. Moreover, there is a cruel irony in the co-existence of youth unemployment with child labour: millions young people are jobless or underutilized while many jobs are filled by children who should be attending schools.

The ILO estimates that halving youth unemployment would increase GDP, by up to 2.5 per cent in East Asia , by up to 6.7 per cent in South Asia and up to 7.4 per cent in South-East Asia  

While the region’s countries have made huge strides in reducing poverty and the prospects are good for meeting the first MDG of halving extreme poverty (those living on less than US$1 a day), the so-called “working poverty” remains a serious problem, according to the ILO report. The working poor are those who often work very hard and long hours but do not earn enough to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. Some 355 million in the region receive inadequate incomes from their labour, which leaves them and their families below the US$1 a day poverty line.  If the poverty line is raised to US$2 a day, Asia has about one billion working poor (more than three-quarters of the global total).  

“It isn’t just the lack of jobs available that should concern us, the quality of jobs and of opportunities is just as important,” said Mr. Shinichi Hasegawa, Regional Director, ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. “Jobs which do not allow people to earn enough to keep themselves and their families, or work that is unsafe our unhealthy, is no solution to poverty. This report shows that the problems spotlighted by the MDG’s are all interlinked – poverty can’t be tackled unless issues as diverse as child labour, gender equality, youth employability are addressed”.  

Questions also hang over the prospects of achieving the other MDG’s related to work and workplace issues.  

Progress towards achieving universal primary education by 2015 (MDG 2) has slowed. The ILO said 48 million primary school age children in the region are not enrolled in school – out of a global total of 103 million. The majority of these children are working. The report says there are clear links between continuing child labour and poverty.  

Many countries, especially those in South Asia , are also unlikely to meet the third MDG on gender equality and the empowerment of women (MDG3). Fewer girls attend primary and secondary schools than boys. Young women suffer more unemployment than young men -- a particularly worrying trend in some countries where female labour force participation is still low. Women in these countries have limited employment opportunities and, if employed, generally earn less than their male counterparts.  

^ go to top