Nokia employees unfold banners during protest denouncing plans to cut jobs at Nokia's Berlin branch in Berlin
Job quality in Canada is at a record low and there is no sign of a turn-around in the immediate future. This was stated in the findings of the Canadian Employment Quality Index, compiled by Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. IN PHOTO: Trade union representatives and Nokia employees unfold banners during a protest denouncing plans to cut jobs at the Berlin branch of the Finnish technology firm, in front of the building of Nokia in Berlin June 16, 2014. Reuters/Stringer

The world economy is in urgent need of creating nearly 280 million new jobs in the next five years to recover the ground lost during recession, says a new report by the International Labour Organisation. The report also said this is most essential to ensure that new entrants in the labour market are getting work.

The forecast from the UN agency has come as a grim reminder about the emerging employment scenario, in the context of the challenges faced by the global economy. The ILO also does not see the gap in job loss being closed in the near term unless aggressive employment policies are pursued.

Tardy Job Creation

“Job creation is likely to remain at a lower rate over the medium term, causing a widening of the global jobs gap to around 80 million jobs in 2019,” the ILO stated, according to The Wall Street Journal.

For accommodating the “new labour market entrants, there must be 277 million new jobs over the coming five years to close the crisis-related jobs gap and absorb the increase in the labour force,” the report suggested.

According to the ILO report, the total number of unemployed workers worldwide was 201.3 million in 2014, which was 1.2 million higher than the figures in 2013 and 31 million more than what it was in 2007, when the global financial crisis erupted.

Expressing concern, the ILO said the “global employment gap caused by the financial crisis is set to widen.” Another highlight of the report was that of youth unemployment, which is a major problem across all geographic regions. Nearly 74 million young people aged between 15 and 24 were looking for work in 2014. The ILO sees the current youth unemployment rate as three times the adult unemployment rate.

Australia Needs Strategy

Reflecting on the job market scenario in Australia, ILO economist Moazam Mahmood called for a lot of work to prevent unemployment rate from breaching the 6 percent threshold. The recent official figures showed Australia's unemployment dipping to 6.1 percent in December, after hitting 6.3 percent in October, which was a 12-year high, reports ABC News.

Mahmood noted that the decline could be short-lived if Australia does not address the loss in manufacturing work. "For Australia, the service sector is a compensation. Very often the service sector relies on manufacturing. Australia will have to think in terms of competitiveness and extra investment to generate a domestic economy which is based a bit more on manufacturing," the economist argued.

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