Global Unemployment Set to Hit Record High in 2013, Says ILO

The number of jobless people worldwide is set to rise and to hit record high with more than 200 million unemployed in 2013, according to the International Labour Organisation.

In its Global Employment Trends 2013, the Geneva- based UN employment watch dog predicts the global unemployment to reach more than 202 million this year, a rise by 5.1 million. Global unemployment would rise further over the next five years and more than 210 million people would be out of work by 2018, warned the agency.

There was a rise of 4.2 million in 2012 that followed a fall in the number of unemployed for straight two years.

Echoing the warning it was giving out for the past six years, the ILO also predicted the global unemployment to increase by another three million in 2014.

According to the report, the youth unemployment rate which stands at 12.6 percent currently is of particular concern as 74 million people in the age group of 15 -24 remain unemployed. There was also a significant rise in the average duration of the unemployment with one year or longer in the developed countries.

ILO report also showed that nearly 39 million people in the world have given up looking for job, as they get discouraged and drop out of the labour market and nearly 28 million have lost their jobs since the beginning of the financial crisis.

"These are people who, because of the seriousness of the crisis, because of long-term unemployment, have given up hope, have decided to not search for work anymore, and therefore they are not counted as unemployed but more as discouraged," Jose Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, head of director of labour market analysis told the Reuters.

Taking in to account the "discouraged" people, the agency subsequently revise down its yearly jobless estimates. In 2007, the jobless rate was cut down to 169 million, 11 percent lower from the original estimates of 189.9 million. There was also a reduction of 10-15 million in the 2008-2010 estimates.

Even with its revised down estimates, there was an employment gap of 67 million since 2007 taking in to account the unemployed and the discouraged people.

However, the report showed no shrinking in the "labour force participation rate", the measure of working-age people who are working or looking for work, It remained steady at 64.1 percent since 2010.