Too many working poor: UN

The global unemployment rate inched down last year, the UN said yesterday, warning though that jobs often failed to guarantee decent living, with some 700 million workers wallowing in poverty.

Unemployment around the world fell last year to 5.0 percent -- from 5.1 percent in 2017 -- for the first time dropping to the level seen before the global financial crisis hit in 2008, the International Labour Organization said.

But in its flagship "World Employment and Social Outlook" trends report, the ILO also raised serious red flags about the health of the planet's job market.

Deborah Greenfield, ILO's deputy director-general, told journalists in Geneva that the decline in global unemployment "is projected to stall", amid "uncertainty on many fronts," and a "deteriorating economic outlook".