An International Labour Organization (ILO) report this week shows that in the year ahead, unemployment will rise, with growing inequalities and stagnant productivity a cause for concern.
The report, World Employment and Social Outlook Trends: 2024, found that although the 2023 global unemployment 2023 unemployment stood at 5.1 per cent, lowering from 5.3 per cent in 2022, and an improvement in the global jobs gap and labour market participation rates, 2024’s outlook is worse.
It is forecasted that in the year ahead, an extra two million workers will be looking for jobs, raising the global unemployment rate to 5.2 per cent.
Looking back on 2023, researchers also found a high degree of variance between high-income and low-income countries.
In high-income countries the jobs gap rate was 8.2 per cent, but was raised to 20.5 per cent in the low-income group. The same variance was seen in the unemployment rate, at 4.5 per cent in high-income countries, and 5.7 per cent in low-income countries.
Read the full report here.