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January 2, 2005 

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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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