ILO: Global unemployment rates would be higher in 2024

27 days ago

Introduction

The International Labor Organization is an arm of the United Nations that looks at the job situation across many countries of the world. The goal is to help the world generate more decent employment opportunities and working conditions for everyone. Like they do every year, they have made a project of what the job market would look like in 2024 - and its not going to look great.

In there World employment projection for 2024, the organization have put together a lot of factors and situations which made them believe that there would be less jobs created across several economies. The report also included that there will be more employed people that are poor in 2024.

Feel free to check out the 120-page document on World employment outlook for 2024. In this publication, I want to highlight some significant pieces of information from the report which points to a glimmer 2024 for the job sector.

Less jobs for more people

The report shows that there will be lesser jobs created and that would mean many people would be left looking for employment opportunities but wont find a lot.

global unemployment rate is expected to remain near current levels, edging up from 5.1 per cent in 2023 to 5.2 per cent in 2024 and remaining unchanged in 2025. source

One of the main causes of global unemployment is the inability of various economies to create more employment opportunities. The few jobs that are available already have a high number of applicants looking to be hired. There is a great competition for roles in the job market. Because more jobs are not being created, many people that are looking for jobs would remain unemployed for a longer period of time.

The situation will be worse in countries with better economies - often referred to as higher-income countries. The rate of job creation in such countries will be significantly lower than in poorer economies. This situation will continue in most of 2024 and then into early 2025 before it starts to improve.

Considering the details included in the ILO report, more men are expected to be hit harder with unemployment than women. A chart included with the report shows that the rate of unemployment among women will remain largely unchanged between 2023 and 2024. However, the figure will significantly increase for the male group.

More informal employment and less decent work

The report explains that a lot of unfavorable conditions will develop as a result of general unemployment in several economies. One of the main conditions that will exist in 2024 is that people are someone forced to accept jobs that are not paying well. When job-seekers spend many years looking for a high-paying job perhaps in their own sector and they do not find, they will eventually settle for less - for what is available.

So in 2024, we will see lots of people working under unfavorable employment conditions perhaps outside their preferred sector. Such conditions might include accepting low wages for more work, doing jobs that may pose great risks to their lives and health, or even accepting employment without the usual work benefits associated with it.

For many others, they could be faced with discrimination in the job market. Some sectors have been noted to prefer a particular gender ahead of the other gender. For example, men dominate some sectors and thus, it is projected that women would struggle more for job opportunities in such sectors in 2024.

Informal work will still count for more employment opportunities in 2024 just as it did in 2023. Job seekers might accept work in businesses that are not registered or licensed. Thus, such employment often lacks the protection that workers have when they work in formal setting. There are many of such small businesses which often operate outside the requirements of national or international labor laws.

Informal employment often have all the challenges associated with indecent work. Workers could face ill-treatment from their employers and they could be fired without any notice. Their wages could be withheld and they could be asked to do more work than agreed. These are the unfavorable working conditions that will unfortunately be part of the labor market outlook for 2024 according to the ILO projection. Check out some of the figures that reflects how prominent informal work if becoming:

Since 2019, the number of informal workers has risen by more than 120 million, bringing the total to over 2 billion in 2023 – its highest level in two decades. This scale of informal work raises concerns about overall job quality, since many of these workers lack adequate social and legal protection source

More workers will be poor in 2024

Unfortunately, with higher unemployment rates in 2024 comes another unfortunate condition. The report projected that there will be more workers that are poor. This is simply because the money they earn from their job is simply too small to care for their needs. Check out this figure from the poblication:

The numbers of workers in the world who were living in extreme poverty (earning less than US$2.15 per day per person) grew by around 1 million. Close to 241 million workers were living in extreme poverty in 2023. source

The above figures do not make for great reading, but that is an unfortunate reality. Its projected to get worse in 2024 because working conditions are not going to improve so much. In addition, the fear of loosing one's job in an economy where unemployment is really high will drive workers to accept any conditions they see in their workplace.

Conclusion

This publication just reviewed a report about the labor market in 2024. If you are living in economies that struggle, they knowledge will help you to be more proactive in your efforts to retain your job or find a new one. Feel free to research and learn more about how you can cope with the unique economic situations of your country.

Check out the following resources for more reading: