2009 world unemployment could rise by 40 million, says UN

The global economic downturn could see 40 million more people lose their jobs by the end of the year, taking the unemployment rate to its highest in a decade, the U.N. labor agency said Wednesday.

The number of unemployed in 2009 will largely depend on how effective governments' economic stimulus measures are, the International Labor Organization cautioned.

Worldwide unemployment by the end of the year will range between 210 million and 230 million people, the agency said in its annual Global Employment Trends report.

That is a marked increase on the 179 million who were unemployed at the end of 2007 and the estimated 190 million at the end of 2008, the ILO said.

The worst case scenario assumes growth slows rapidly and that an economic recovery will be delayed into 2010.

This would boost the global unemployment rate to 7.1 per cent, a decade high and well above the 2007 rate of 5.7 per cent and estimates for a 2008 rate of 6 per cent. Over the last ten years, the rate has ranged from 5.7 per cent to a peak of 6.3 in 2003 and 2004.

ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said that although many governments have started to support their economies, ``more decisive and coordinated international action is needed to avert a global social recession.''

``Progress in poverty reduction is unraveling and middle classes worldwide are weakening,'' he said.

The latest predictions are based on an economic growth forecast of 2.2 per cent, published by the International Monetary Fund in November and expected to be adjusted downwards.

``Unemployment will rise with a downward revision, but I believe it will still fall within the range,'' said Lawrence J. Johnson, who heads the ILO's employment trends unit.

The report had originally forecast world unemployment would range between 198 million and 230 million people, but Somavia said the lowest estimate has probably been overtaken by events.

If the worst case scenario materializes, around 200 million more people would become working poor, unable to earn more than $2 per person a day.

In this outlook, the total number of working poor would be 812 million, or 26.8 per cent of the world's work force, the report said, using poverty estimates by the World Bank.

In 2007, some 609.5 million were working poor, 20.6 per cent of the world's work force at the time.

In addition to fiscal and monetary interventions, the world economy also needs creative measures improving the social situation of workers, the report said.

``There is a need to focus measures on vulnerable groups in the labor market, such as youth and women, who are most likely to be pushed into poverty and find themselves trapped there for many years,'' it said.

Governments should give special attention to small and medium companies because they provide the bulk of jobs and are most affected by the financial crisis, the report said.

Agencies

Internet users rise 17 pc in 2008, says IAMAI study

The number of active Internet users in the country has grown by nearly 17 per cent in 2008 over the same period a year ago, a study says.

According to a study by Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International, India has 45.3 million active users at the ended of September 2008, of which 42 million are from the urban community.

"Urban users continue to dominate Internet use contributing to 42 million of the 45 million odd users," a study by the organisations 'Internet in India' finds.

In the same period last year, the number of active users in urban India was 36 million, which shows a year-on-year growth of 16.66 per cent.

"The growth rate was alarming compared with the rest in past years as well as with some other countries notably China where the number of Internet users are more than 250 million," IAMAI President Subho Ray said.

Study defines active Internet users as those users, who have used the Internet at least once in the last one month, which is an internationally accepted benchmark for enumerating internet users

Meanwhile, the study also found that the number of "claimed" Internet users in September 2008 was 57 million compared with 48 million of last year. Claimed users are those, who have used the Internet sometime but not in the last one month.

I-Cube (Internet in India) study is conducted annually by IMRB International and Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

Agencies

Women power in IT on the rise

The number of women in the IT sector is on the rise. There are 2 million employees in this sector, out of which 28% are women (2007-08) up from 24% in 2005-06. Also the intake of women at the entry level this year was 46% up from 38% last year. Considering the next 10 years, India has a unique role to play for which contribution of women cannot be ignored, said NASSCOM president Som Mittal.

Moreover, NASSCOM conducted a survey of 50 companies and found that 11% of leaders in the industry were women. These roles were in senior management mostly for decision-making. Also two year’s back, three or four companies formally followed gender diversity programmes, but now there are about 80 companies that have some initiative to handle issues for women and take care of gender diversity and inclusiveness.