By Adis Marlen Morera
Economic writing
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO) Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Claudia Coenjaerts, the most pressing problem in the current economic scenario is the quality of jobs and insufficient overall income.
This requires the implementation and strengthening of various policies that contribute to the stability of labor income in the region, notes the regional ILO.
Coenjaerts predicted that the slowdown in economic activity in Latin America will negatively impact job creation by 2023, with unemployment fluctuating between 7.2 and 7.5 percent as a result.
A recent ILO report states that it is important to look beyond regional averages to take into account the specificities of each nation.
In nine out of 15 countries, the employment rate was lower in the third quarter of 2022 than in the same period of 2019, and only in two countries did the activity rate exceed the 2019 level.
Argentina rose from 59.2 to 60.3 percent and Bolivia from 69.3 to 73.7 percent, while Jamaica’s participation rose from 65.2 to 64.7 percent and Trinidad and Tobago from 57.3 to 55.2 percent declined, data highlighting the existing heterogeneity in the region.
According to the analysis, the region is affected by a combination of multiple crises at the global level, while at the same time facing the prospect of low economic growth, the consequences of high inflation, limited fiscal space and high levels of debt.
Despite the unemployment rate falling to 7.2 percent in 2022, problems with job quality will remain, a positive fact, especially after the large-scale crisis that caused the health crisis.
Regarding the low unemployment rate, the text indicates that it has managed to regain pre-pandemic levels at the end of the third quarter of 2022.
However, the senior official warned that progress on labor issues could stall this year.
WORK INFORMALITY, A DAMAGE FACTOR
Since mid-2020, the job recovery has been hampered by the increase in informal work, which has accounted for between 40 and 80 percent of jobs created.
The countries with the greatest impact were Bolivia, at 80 percent, and Peru and Ecuador, each at about 70 percent.
The study shows that one in two people is currently working informally, surrounded by an unstable climate that is usually associated with low income and no social security.
The ILO estimates that informal workers are three to four times more likely to be poor than formal workers, accounting for between 70 and 90 per cent of total in-work poverty.
According to ILO Regional Office labor economist Roxana Maurizio, the impact of informality, together with the loss of purchasing power of wages, is crucial to understanding why attention should be paid to the phenomenon of the working poor.
Maurizio also stated that measures to maintain and create more and better jobs, mainly formal ones, are necessary to address the situation of worker poverty in the region.
SOCIAL JUSTICE, A CAN OF SALVATION
A key factor in ensuring just and peaceful societies is the necessary dose of social justice at the global level, said ILO Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo.
Celebrating World Day of Social Justice on February 20, Houngbo forecast that world job growth for this year will be just 1.0 percent, a figure below 2022 levels.
He also stressed the need to promote the coalition to help reduce and prevent inequalities. In his opinion, no one should be left behind in the middle of the crisis, there is reason for hope if all actors come together for social justice.
In this regard, the senior official announced the international organization’s calls for the establishment in 2023 of a global social justice coalition that would guarantee the promotion of and access to decent work, labor rights, and protection and social dialogue.
In the midst of a panorama marked by several global crises and inequalities on labor issues, the search for social justice is essential as the element of salvation that guarantees human progress in all regions of the world and especially in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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