• by Juan Somavia
• Wednesday, June 01, 2011
• Inter Press Service

More than 200 million people are officially unemployed worldwide, including nearly 80 million young women and men eager to secure their first job. Both figures are at their highest points ever, but this is only the tip of the iceberg.

The number of workers in vulnerable employment 1.5 billion (around half of the world’s labour force)­ and persons working but surviving on less than US$2.00 per day ­1.2 billion­ is on the rise again, writes Juan Somavia is Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Discontent worldwide is reaching dangerous levels. In three-quarters of the 82 countries with available information, a majority of individuals are getting increasingly pessimistic about their future quality of life and standard of living. This all points in one direction: mounting frustration with a lack of jobs and decent work.

The bottom line is this: the current growth model that has evolved since the early 1980s has become economically inefficient, socially unstable, environmentally damaging and politically unsustainable. It no longer commands legitimacy. People are rightly demanding more fairness in every aspect of their lives. This no doubt contributed to mass uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East as well as significant protests in a number of industrialized countries and other regions.

(*) Juan Somavia is Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO)

//NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN THE UNITED STATES//

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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