Global unemployment rises to 185.9 million in 2003: United Nations

Global unemployment rose in 2003 to a record 185.9 million, but the world-wide economic recovery in the second half of the year may have helped to improve the situation, the United Nations Labour Agency says.
The number of people, who were unemployed and looking for work in 2003, reached 185.9 million, or about 6.2 percent of the total labour force, the highest unemployment figure has recorded the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
This was, however, only a marginal increase over the 2002, when 185.4 million were jobless.
But the rate of growth in global unemployment slowed down sharply as compared to the previous two years, the report said, adding, however, that it is "too early to say that the worst is over."
The report predicts that if current estimates of global growth and domestic demand hold steady or improve over the coming year, the global employment picture may brighten somewhat in 2004."
However, despite the pickup in economic growth after a two-year slump, the 2003 figures remained at record levels for men and women and escalated more sharply among young people, aged 15-24, the report says.
Some 108.1 million of the unemployed were men, up 600,000 from 2002.
Among women, there was a slight decline to 77.8 million in 2003 from 77.9 million in 2002. But the hardest hit were some 88.2 million young people with a crushing unemployment rate of 14.4 percent, the report says.
GREATEST CONCERN: "Our greatest concern is that if the recovery falters and our hopes for more and better jobs are further delayed, many countries will fail to cut poverty by half as targeted by the millennium development goals for 2015," ILO Director General Juan Somavia says.
"But we can reverse this trend and reduce poverty if policy-makers stop treating employment as an afterthought and place decent work at the heart of macroeconomic and social policies," he added.
The ILO report says unemployment and underemployment during the first half of 2003 rose because of the slow pace of the upturn in the industrialised world's economies and the negative impact of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) on employment in Asia.
A drop in tourism and travel employment also resulted from armed conflicts.
In the poorer countries, the "informal economy" of people without fixed jobs or steady self-employment has grown and the 'working poor,' defined as those living on one dollar a day or less, has remained at an estimated 550 million, according to the report.