The Regional Director of the ILO for Latin America and the Caribbean, Claudia Coenjaertswhen presenting the analysis on the employment situation that has been prepared annually for 30 years, said that the drop in unemployment “is positive news especially after the large-scale crisis caused by the pandemic”.
The ILO report also states that beyond the regional averages it is important consider individual country situations. In 9 out of 15 countries the occupancy rate was still lower than that registered three years earlierwhile only in 2 of 15 countries the participation rate exceeded pre-pandemic levels. The unemployment rate fell in 10 of 15 countries to the third quarter of 2022.
But at the same time he stressed that this year that progress could stall. “He little dynamism of the economy forecast for 2023 negatively affect the generation of new jobs and that will make unemployment register variations in 2023”, reaching levels between 7.2% and 7.5%.
He Labor Overview highlights that the region is affected by the conjunction of multiple global crisessuch as the persistence of the pandemic or the war between Russia and Ukraine, and at the same time faces the prospect of low economic growththe aftermath of a high inflationlimited fiscal space and high levels of indebtedness.
Informality and quality of employment
coenjaerts said that “in this economic scenario the most urgent labor problem for the region is the one of the job quality and the insufficient labor income and totals generated by workers and their families”.
The report highlights that the work recovery was strongly pulled for him increase in informal occupationswhich represented between 40 and 80 percent of the jobs created. Although in recent months this trend has softened in favor of formal jobs, the regional informality rate has already reached 50 percent as it was before the pandemic, although in some countries it is much higher.
“The truth is that one in two people work informallywhich is usually accompanied by job instability, low income, and no social protection,” said Coenjaerts.
The Regional Director also explained that according to ILO estimates “workers informal youare between 3 and 4 times more likely to be poor than formal workers, at the same time that they explain between 70 and 90 percent of total working poverty.
Additionally, the report warns that the real income of workers in the region are being affected by a rate of regional inflation that would have been above 8 percent in 2022 and that caused a loss of purchasing power of average wages and minimum wages.
Source: Ambito
