Slowdown Is a Global Out-of-Work in Progress
A report scheduled to be released today by the United Nations' International Labor Office reveals that in the past two years approximately 20 million people have lost their jobs worldwide---a 12.5-percent increase that vastly outpaced population growth of only 1.2 percent. This drastic rise in unemployment has brought the total number of people unemployed worldwide to 180 million, while a troubling trend towards increasing numbers of working poor has brought the figure for people making less than one dollar a day to a five-year high of 550 million. International Labor Office Director Juan Somavia has characterized the "world employment situation" as "deteriorating dramatically," and has pointed out that the unemployment figures in the report may not even represent the true depth of the problem because the figures for many countries only take into account unemployed individuals who seek government aid.
See "Slowdown Is a Global Out-of-Work in Progress", KIRSTIN DOWNEY, The Washington Post, January 23, 2003