More than 5 million people will lose their jobs this year as the world economy slows, an official at the U.N. labor agency said Thursday. Most job losses will occur in rich countries, but millions of "working poor" in the developing world who won't be counted also will suffer, said Dorothea Schmidt, an economist at the International Labor Organization. Schmidt said the latest global growth figures from the International Monetary Fund prompted the labor agency to review its jobs forecast for 2008. The Washington-based IMF cut its growth projection from 4.4 percent to 4.1 percent Tuesday. The Geneva-based ILO published a report last week predicting that the number of unemployed worldwide would increase to about 195 million from 190 million last year.
See "UN Says More Than 5M Will Lose Jobs", Associated Press, Chicago Tribune, January 30, 2008