ILO Forecasts Deterioration In Jobs

The International Labor Organization (ILO) said the labor market projections for this year showed deterioration in global labor markets for both women and men, media reports say.
Ahead of the International Women's Day (March 8), the U.N. labor body in its annual Global Employment Trends for Women report warned that deepening recession was expected to increase the number of unemployed women by up to 22 million, as global job crisis could "worsen sharply" this year.

The ILO projected that the global unemployment rate could reach between 6.3 per cent and 7.1 per cent, with a corresponding female unemployment rate ranging from 6.5 to 7.4 per cent compared to 6.1 per cent to 7.0 per cent for men.
This would result in an increase of between 24 million and 52 million persons unemployed worldwide, of which from 10 million to 22 million would be women, it said.
The international report said the impact of unemployment due to the global economic downturn was expected to be more detrimental to women than men in most parts of the world.
Noting that the economic crisis had hit women harder--as they were "more vulnerable" than men--the report suggested "gender equality" practices in any policy response that would better the position of working women and impact the overall stability of society.

The ILO said the global economic crisis would place new hurdles in the way to sustainable and socially equitable growth, making decent work for women more difficult; it susggested "creative solutions" to address the gender gap.
Additionally, the U.N. body advocated broader social protection measures, including unemployment benefits and insurance schemes and social dialogue, with the active inclusion of women in decision-making processes.

Though the ILO suggested women workers in Latin America and Caribbean would be the most effected by the crisis, it said, the impact was almost similar among both genders in developed economies of the Americas and E.U. where there was little or no gender divide.

In India and Africa, where women were mostly engaged in non-economic household work and agriculture was the biggest source of employment, there remained a chance of considerably higher incidence of poverty, it said.