Asia's Unemployed To Increase By 7.2 Million

by Sanjay Jha | February 18, 2009 at 01:04 am

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The number of unemployed in Asia is likely to increase by about 7.2 million from 2008 to this year.

This figure, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), is at a rate of 5.1 per cent, with women and youth hard-hit by rising unemployment.

The report said that total job loss in Asia would be substantial against 50 million job loss globally in the 2007-2009 period.

This high number of job loss could pose a serious problem to developing nations of Asia and they could become vulnerable to social unrest.

Asia is likely to have 7.2 million more jobless people in 2009 than last year due to fallout from the global economic crisis, raising the region's jobless rate to 5.1 percent, the International Labor Organization said Wednesday.

It forecast the ranks of unemployed workers would likely balloon to 97 million in 2009 in Asia, the world economy's star performer in recent years but where a third of the population still live on a little over 1 U.S. dollar a day. Last year, the unemployment rate was 4.8 percent.

In the most pessimistic scenario, the number of unemployed could swell to 113 million, or 22.3 million more than last year, the ILO said in a report on the crisis' fallout in Asia.

An estimated 51 million new jobs will be needed this year and next to absorb Asia's growing labor force, with most jobs needed in the region's giant economies — 20.3 million in India, 10.9 million in China and 3.6 million in Indonesia.

Countries with the highest rates of expected labor force growth through 2010 include Pakistan at 6.1 percent, Cambodia at 4.9 percent, and the Philippines at 4.9 percent.