Women more affected, 60% work without written contract
The global employment outlook will deteriorate in the coming five years. Over 201 million were unemployed in 2014 around the world, over 31 million more than before the start of the global crisis of 2008.
Youth Factor
- Youth, especially young women, continue to be disproportionately affected by unemployment. Almost 74 million young people (aged 15″24) were looking for work in 2014.
- The youth unemployment rate is practically three times higher than is the case for their adult counterparts.
- The employment situation is improving in some advanced economies, while remaining difficult in much of Europe
- The significant fall in oil prices that has continued in early 2015 will, if sustained, improve employment prospects somewhat in importing countries.
Vulnerable Employment
- The incidence of vulnerable employment is projected to remain broadly constant at around 45% of total employment over the next two years, in stark contrast to the declines observed during the pre-crisis period. The number of workers in vulnerable employment has increased by 27 million since 2012, and currently stands at 1.44 billion worldwide. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia account for more than half of the world’s vulnerable employment, with three out of four workers in these regions in vulnerable employment.
- This report estimates the loss in global demand at $3.7 trillion as a result of unemployment, lagging labour incomes and their effects on consumption, investment and government revenue.
- The World Employment and Social Outlook 2015 (WESO) finds that, among countries with available data (covering 84% of the global workforce), three quarters of workers are employed on temporary or short-term contracts, in informal jobs often without any contract, under own-account arrangements or in unpaid family jobs.
No Written Contract
- Over 60% of all workers lack any kind of employment contract, with most of them engaged in own-account* or contributing family work in the developing world. However, even among wage and salaried workers, less than half (42%) are working on a permanent contract.
- The first edition of the new, annual flagship report, entitled The Changing Nature of Jobs, shows that while wage and salaried work is growing worldwide, it still accounts for only half of global employment.
- Another current trend is the rise in part-time employment, especially among women. In the majority of countries with available information, part-time jobs outpaced gains in full-time jobs between 2009 and 2013.
- The report finds that despite the positive steps made towards improving pension coverage, social protection, such as unemployment benefits, is still mainly available only for regular employees. For the self-employed, even pensions are scarce: in 2013, only 16 per cent of the self-employed contributed to a pension scheme.
- Nearly 73 per cent of the global jobs gap in 2014 was due to a shortfall in employment among women who make up only around 40 per cent of the global labour force.
- Out of 40 countries (representing two thirds of the global labour force), 453 million people were employed in global supply chains in 2013, compared with 296 million in 1995. This represents a share of 20.6 per cent in total employment in the countries covered, compared with 16.4 per cent in 1995.
- At the global level, 52 per cent of employees are currently affiliated to a pension scheme, compared with 16 per cent of the self-employed.
- Nearly 80 per cent of employees with a permanent contract are currently contributing to a pension scheme, compared with just above half (51 per cent) of employees with temporary contracts.
(Note: The statistics have been excerpted from World Employment and Social Outlook 2015 and ILO Trends Econometric Models April 2014)
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