Monday, April 19, 2010
G20 labour and employment ministers ponder crisis
From The Hindu
Labour and employment ministers of the G-20 nations will convene this week in Washington to assess how the global economic crisis has affected employment worldwide, according to the United States Department of Labour. As per a press release by the DoL, India will be sending Mallikarjun Kharge, Union Minister of Labour and Employment, to head up its delegation.
The event, to be held on April 20 and 21, will be hosted by Labour Department Secretary Hilda Solis, and will be an opportunity for ministers and senior bureaucrats to “compare experiences and policy responses, and offer recommendations for putting quality jobs at the heart of the global economic recovery,” the DoL said.
Setting the stage for the event the DoL argued that the G20 nations accounted for 85 per cent of the global economy and more than two thirds the world’s population. This meeting was therefore an “unprecedented opportunity to tackle one of the worst legacies of the global economic crisis: the loss of millions of jobs,” according to the DoL.
The DoL noted that while a few economic vital signs were improving, global unemployment has surged by 34 million, reaching record 212 million in 2009. Even where economies were growing, unemployment remained elevated was likely to rise further.
The meeting conveners also worried that the “lingering job loss” had a particularly risky prognosis given that even milder recessions in the past had produced heightened unemployment for an average of four years; and “this recession has wreaked more havoc than any since the Great Depression,” the DoL cautioned.
At the 2009 Pittsburgh Summit the G20 nations declared, “We cannot rest until the global economy is restored to full health and hard working families the world over can find decent jobs.” Further they had pledged to implement recovery plans that “support decent work, help preserve employment, and prioritise job growth,” and to continue to “provide income, social protection, and training support for the unemployed.”
In a statement the DoL struck a note of hope and reiterated these intentions saying “The G20 countries have already taken forceful and innovative steps to create and protect jobs and livelihoods. The ILO estimates that this year and last year alone, economic stimulus programmes and automatic stabilizers in place in G20 countries have saved or created 21 million jobs that would otherwise have vanished, cutting job losses by nearly 40 per cent.”
In particular the wrenching conditions in labour markets globally have spurred on many countries to significantly strengthen their social safety nets, expanding unemployment benefits, cash transfer programmes and access to health care and pensions. The U.S. has led these efforts in the West, with massive stimulus and unemployment benefits packages put in place early last year.
Regarding the DoL’s intention behind the gathering, it hoped that “the Labour and Employment Ministers’ Meeting will enable ministers to showcase what they’ve done and share information about what has worked and what has not — and why.” It said they would take stock of current trends in labour markets and the latest research by the ILO and OECD and then decide on additional steps needed to create even more jobs, adding that they would prepare a series of recommendations for the G20 Leaders.
Labour and employment ministers of the G-20 nations will convene this week in Washington to assess how the global economic crisis has affected employment worldwide, according to the United States Department of Labour. As per a press release by the DoL, India will be sending Mallikarjun Kharge, Union Minister of Labour and Employment, to head up its delegation.
The event, to be held on April 20 and 21, will be hosted by Labour Department Secretary Hilda Solis, and will be an opportunity for ministers and senior bureaucrats to “compare experiences and policy responses, and offer recommendations for putting quality jobs at the heart of the global economic recovery,” the DoL said.
Setting the stage for the event the DoL argued that the G20 nations accounted for 85 per cent of the global economy and more than two thirds the world’s population. This meeting was therefore an “unprecedented opportunity to tackle one of the worst legacies of the global economic crisis: the loss of millions of jobs,” according to the DoL.
The DoL noted that while a few economic vital signs were improving, global unemployment has surged by 34 million, reaching record 212 million in 2009. Even where economies were growing, unemployment remained elevated was likely to rise further.
The meeting conveners also worried that the “lingering job loss” had a particularly risky prognosis given that even milder recessions in the past had produced heightened unemployment for an average of four years; and “this recession has wreaked more havoc than any since the Great Depression,” the DoL cautioned.
At the 2009 Pittsburgh Summit the G20 nations declared, “We cannot rest until the global economy is restored to full health and hard working families the world over can find decent jobs.” Further they had pledged to implement recovery plans that “support decent work, help preserve employment, and prioritise job growth,” and to continue to “provide income, social protection, and training support for the unemployed.”
In a statement the DoL struck a note of hope and reiterated these intentions saying “The G20 countries have already taken forceful and innovative steps to create and protect jobs and livelihoods. The ILO estimates that this year and last year alone, economic stimulus programmes and automatic stabilizers in place in G20 countries have saved or created 21 million jobs that would otherwise have vanished, cutting job losses by nearly 40 per cent.”
In particular the wrenching conditions in labour markets globally have spurred on many countries to significantly strengthen their social safety nets, expanding unemployment benefits, cash transfer programmes and access to health care and pensions. The U.S. has led these efforts in the West, with massive stimulus and unemployment benefits packages put in place early last year.
Regarding the DoL’s intention behind the gathering, it hoped that “the Labour and Employment Ministers’ Meeting will enable ministers to showcase what they’ve done and share information about what has worked and what has not — and why.” It said they would take stock of current trends in labour markets and the latest research by the ILO and OECD and then decide on additional steps needed to create even more jobs, adding that they would prepare a series of recommendations for the G20 Leaders.
Labels: G-20 nations, global economic crisis
# posted by Narayan Lakshman @ 9:22 PM 
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