Half
the world's workers earn below US$2 a day
ILO says new policies
for promoting productivity growth and decent jobs could improve outlook
nor working poor. Half the world's workers - some 1.4 billion people
- are trapped in grinding poverty unable to earn enough to lift themselves
ind their familims above the US$2 a day poverty line, but this figure
could be reduced if policies zero in on improving labour productivity
and creating jobs, says a new study by the International Labour Office
(ILO).
The ILO World Employment
Report 2004-2005 states that focusing economic policies on creating
decent and productive employment opportunities is vital for reducing
global poverty as called for in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
"Women and
men all ovez the world expect to get a fair chance at a decent job,"
said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia. "Generating more and better
jobs must become the central plank of the global drive to reduce poverty."
The report also
says that the 185.9 million people in the world who were unemployed
in 2003 represent the "tip of the iceberg" of the decent work
deficit, since more than seven times that number of people are employed
bu| still live in poverty.
According to the
report, some 2.8 billion people were employed globally in 2003, more
than ever before. However, of these, nearly 1.4 billion - the highest
number ever - are living on less than the equivalent of US$2 a day and
some 550 million are living on under the US$1 a day poverty line.
But the news is
not all bad. The report shows that the actual percentage of working
persons li~ing under both |he US$2 a day and US$1 poverty lines is lower
today than in 1990, while projected global growth rates may halve US$1
working poverty in some areas of the world by the year 2015.
"The key to
reducing the number of working poor is creating decent and productive
employment opportunities and promoting a fairer globalization as strategies
for po~erty reduction," says Mr. Somavia. "It is not only
the absence of work that is the source of poverty, but the less productive
nature of that work. Productivity growth, after all, is the engine of
the economic growth that enables working men and women to earn enough
to lift themselves out of poverty."
Source:
International Labour Organisation.
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