Joblessness in Latin America shows need for fairer globalization - UN

With 19 million workers jobless in Latin America's cities and unemployment hovering at above 10 per cent despite a modest economic recovery in 2003, the United Nations labour agency today called for a reorientation of economic priorities and a more equitable globalization process.

High unemployment, poor quality jobs, falling real wages and productivity losses challenge Latin America and the Caribbean to make the creation of decent work the central pillar of development, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said in the latest edition of Panorama Laboral, its annual employment review for the region.

"The current model of globalization actually devalues work," ILO Director General Juan Somavia said. "We have to work for a different, more just and equitable form of globalization."

Governments, employers and workers must foster "adequate political instruments to give employment the central role it should play in modern democracies," Mr. Somavia added, noting that joblessness is "the main political problem of our time."

The report calls for a number of steps, including the adoption of fiscal policies that takes account of social and labour issues as well as modernization of the labour market based more on productivity than cost. It also urges stronger labour and social protection benefits and recommends reinforcing the essential role of social dialogue between governments, employers and workers to reach consensus on these matters.

"Obviously no strategy can overcome the poverty of 220 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean if it is not based on the creation of quality jobs and more and better enterprises capable of generating employment," Mr. Somavia said.

The report warned that even an accelerated growth rate of 3.5 per cent in 2004 would fail to significantly reduce the current 10.7 per cent rate of unemployment.

It noted that minimum wages lost 1.6 per cent in purchasing power, while wages in the manufacturing sector declined by an average of 4.8 per cent. At the same time, four out of 10 Latin Americans had insufficient income to satisfy basic needs. Most new jobs over the past decade - 7 out of 10 - were part of the informal economy, while in some countries as many as one in three youths are out of work.