UN report: austerity not working
Fiscal austerity and tough labour reforms have failed to create jobs, leading to an “alarming” situation in the global employment market that shows no sign of recovering, the International Labour Organization said yesterday. It said advanced countries, especially Europe, would not see a return to the pre-crisis employment levels of 2008 until the end of 2016. This is two years later than it previously predicted because of a slowdown in production. An estimated 196m people were unemployed worldwide at the end of last year, forecast to rise to 202m in 2012 for a rate of 6.1 per cent, according to the United Nations agency’s annual flagship report, “World of Work Report 2012”. Long-term jobseekers are demoralised and an average of 40 per cent of job seekers in their prime (aged 25-49) in advanced countries have been without work for more than a year, the report found.