Geneva (AFP)

The number of unemployed people in the world is expected to rise again this year, to 190.5 million, but the underemployment of the workforce affects more than double, according to an ILO report published on Monday.

In its annual report on world employment, the International Labor Organization (ILO) indicates that after remaining "relatively stable over the past nine years", world unemployment should start to rise again due to the slowdown economic growth.

The number of unemployed is expected to increase by around 2.5 million in 2020 because as the labor force increases, the jobs created are not numerous enough to absorb the new arrivals on the labor market.

The global unemployment rate stood at 5.4% in 2019 and is expected to remain essentially the same for the next two years, which means that the gradual decline observed between 2009 and 2018 has stalled.

The "underutilization of the workforce" affected more than 470 million people worldwide last year. In addition to the 188 million unemployed, this concept includes the 165 million people who are employed but who would like to work more and the 120 million who are not classified as unemployed but who could find a job in the near future.

"For millions of ordinary people, it is harder and harder to live better thanks to work," said ILO director Guy Ryder at a press conference.

"The persistence and the extent of exclusion and professional inequalities prevent them from finding decent work and accessing a better future. This is an extremely worrying finding which has serious and worrying repercussions on social cohesion" within countries, he noted.

Access to paid work is also no guarantee of decent work: around 61% of the global workforce is in informal, low-paid jobs with little or no access to social protection and rights at work.

And more than 630 million workers worldwide - one in five of the world's working population - live in extreme or moderate poverty (earnings below $ 3.20 a day in terms of purchasing power parity). This phenomenon is expected to increase in 2020 and 2021 in developing countries.

- Call for social dialogue -

The increase in protests in many regions last year "shows that dissatisfaction with the social, economic or political situation is on the rise," worries the ILO.

Asked at a press conference on the protests, particularly in France, Mr. Ryder said that raising the retirement age was not in itself a "bad or wrong" measure, but he noted the importance of tackle the issue through "social dialogue, and that workers and employers can contribute to the debate and the search for solutions".

In its report, the ILO also notes that the share of national income that goes to workers (rather than capital owners) fell sharply between 2004 and 2017, from 54% to 51%. This decline - steeper than expected - is more marked in Europe, Central Asia and the region of the Americas.

As for inequality in labor income, they are more important than the previous estimates suggested.

Globally, it has declined over the past fifteen years due to economic convergence driven by countries such as India and China, but inequality within countries has not diminished during the same period.

"We have levels of inequality in our societies that are unacceptable, politically unacceptable, politically unsustainable," Guy Ryder told reporters.

© 2020 AFP