Job creation failed to keep pace with global economic momentum last year, when unemployment declined for first time since 2000, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said in a report Monday. The number of jobless workers worldwide fell to 184.7 million in 2004 from 185.2 million in 2003, for an unemployment rate of 6.1%, down from 6.3%, according to the ILO.
But with world economic growth of 5%, the creation of 47.7 million new jobs "remained disappointing," the report said. "Employment as a share of the working age population stayed virtually unchanged at 61.8% in 2004," it found. The contraction in unemployment last year was particularly pronounced in Latin America and the Caribbean, where the jobless rate declined to 8.6% from 9.3% in 2003. There was only modest improvement in the European Union, where the unemployment rate came 9% after 9.1% in 2003.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005
