G20 Countries Have Lost 20M Jobs and May Lose Another 20M by End of 2012

A study by the International Labour Organization and Organisation for Cooperation and Development (OECD) presented on Monday in Paris says that the risks of prolonged unemployment are growing in the G-20. The study indicates that the G-20 lost 20 million jobs with the financial crisis of 2008 and risk losing more than 20 million by the end of 2012.
"We are very concerned about what we are seeing in the numbers," said Stefano Scarpetta, chief analyst jobs in the OECD, just before a two-day meeting to be held in the French capital with the labor ministers of 20 countries. "Employment and social policies should be the focus of a policy to combat the current situation."

The recent expansion of employment in the G-20 is insufficient to offset the 20 million jobs lost in the 2008 economic crisis, said Scarpetta. Employment grew 1%, but it requires an annual expansion of at least 1.3% to fill the gap of 20 million jobs in the G-20 2015. Scarpetta said the situation tends to worsen with the current economic slowdown.

"If the employment rate grows by 0.8% by the end of 2012, now a possibility in mind, then the lack of jobs will grow by another 20 million jobs for a total of 40 million in the G-20" , said the ILO and OECD.

The study says that 200M are currently unemployed, at levels very close to the great depression.

The performance of labor markets was very different from country to country. While some countries such as Brazil, Germany and Indonesia had a strong growth in employment and significant falls in unemployment, others such as Argentina, Australia and Russia showed little or no growth in employment, and another group of countries and regions still have persistent high unemployment such as Spain, the United States, United Kingdom, South Africa and the European Union.