Global unemployment up by 4.2 m to over 197 m

The number of unemployed worldwide has increased by 4.2 million in 2012 to cross 197 million, which is 5.9 percent of world population, according to Global Employment Trends 2013 report.

As the global unemployment rose in 2012 after falling for two straight years, ILO has also warned in a report that it could further increase in 2013.

A quarter of the increase in global unemployment in 2012 has been in the advanced economies while three quarters has been through spillovers into other regions, with marked effects in developing economies in East Asia, South Asia and Sub Saharan Africa, according to report.

“An uncertain economic outlook, and the inadequacy of policy to counter this, has weakened aggregate demand, holding back investment and hiring." ILO news quoted its director general Guy Ryder as saying.

This has prolonged the labour market slump in many countries, lowering job creation and increasing unemployment duration even in some countries that previously had low unemployment and dynamic labour markets, he added.

Saying that many of the new jobs require skills that jobseekers do not have, Ryder said that the governments should step up efforts to support skills and retraining activities in order to address such mismatches which particularly affect young people. nepalnews.com