The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has projected that global unemployment rate will marginally fall this year even as inequalities in labour markets will persist, with women in low-income countries to be particularly affected.
The labour organization, in its latest ‘World Employment and Social Outlook: May 2024 Update’, predicted that the 2024 global unemployment rate would stand at 4.9%, down from 5.0 per cent in 2023.
In its ‘News Alert’ on the Global Employment Report outlook on Wednesday, the ILO’s latest forecast revised downward its previous projection of 5.2% for this year, noting however, the downward trend for joblessness is expected to flatten in 2025, with unemployment remaining at 4.9%.
Despite this outlook, the report underscored a persistent lack of employment opportunities as the ILO estimated that the jobs gap’, which measures the number of persons without a job but who want to work, stands at 402 million persons in 2024, including 183 million people who are counted as unemployed.
Commenting on the report’s findings, ILO Director-General, Gilbert Houngbo, said: “Today’s report reveals critical employment challenges that we must still address. Despite our efforts to reduce global inequalities, the labour market remains an uneven playing field, especially for women.
“To achieve a sustainable recovery whose benefits are shared by all, we must work towards inclusive policies that take into consideration the needs of all workers. We must place inclusion and social justice at the core of our policies and institutions. Unless we do we will fall short of our objective to ensure strong and inclusive development”, the labour expert added.
A further analysis of the figures in the report showed that women, especially in low-income countries, were disproportionately affected by the lack of opportunities with jobs gap for women in low-income countries reaching a striking 22.8% compared to 15.3% for men.
The low-income countries’ trend contrasted with high-income countries, where the rate stood at 9.7% for women and 7.3% for men.
According to the ILO, these differences are just the “tip of the iceberg”, as significantly more women than men are completely detached from the labour market.
The report reflected that family responsibilities can explain much of the difference seen in women’s and men’s employment rates as globally, 45.6% of working-age women were employed in 2024, compared to 69.2% of men.
The labour organization clarified: “Even when women are employed, they tend to earn far less than men, particularly in low-income countries. While women in high-income countries earn seventy-three cents compared to a dollar earned by men, this figure drops to just forty-four cents in low-income countries.
“More generally, despite the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, progress in reducing poverty and informality has slowed down in comparison to the previous decade. The number of workers in informal employment has grown from approximately 1.7 billion in 2005 to 2.0 billion in 2024.
“To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, “a comprehensive approach” to reducing poverty and inequality is urgently needed”, the ILO added.
