FULL EMPLOYMENT IS ATTAINABLE GOAL, SAYS UNITED NATIONS REPORT

18 February 1997

Press Release
SOC/4412

FULL EMPLOYMENT IS ATTAINABLE GOAL, SAYS UNITED NATIONS REPORT

19970218 Full employment is a goal which can be realized without necessarily overheating national economies, according to a report to be presented to the Commission for Social Development, as it convenes at Headquarters from 25 February to 6 March.

The report, which was prepared by the secretariat of the International Labour Organization (ILO), discusses "productive employment and sustainable livelihoods", the priority theme of the Commission's upcoming session, according its multi-year programme of work which addresses the core issues of the 1995 World Summit for Social Development.

According to the report (document E/CN.5/1997/3), the people of the world have paid a price for the overriding concern of policy-makers with controlling inflation and reducing public deficits, and the relative neglect of measures to combat unemployment. In western Europe, unemployment is reaching the highest levels since the Great Depression. Resulting pressures threaten to undermine the achievement of greater integration within the European Union, while fuelling persecution of minority groups and immigrants and exacerbating social tensions.

In countries like the United States and Japan, unemployment is not so severe, but feelings of job insecurity are more prevalent than at any time since the Second World War, the report states.

Job creation in developing countries overall is lagging behind an increase in the labour force averaging about 2 per cent per annum, the report notes, adding that so widespread unemployment and underemployment remain primary impediments to poverty eradication. While rapid economic growth in east and south-east Asia has brought about a high rate of job creation over the past two decades, overall employment growth in Latin America and the Caribbean declined sharply during the 1980s. Limited data available on Africa and west Asia indicate slumping employment opportunities in these regions.

Countries with economies in transition suffered major job losses during the post-1989 period, although employment losses have been moderate in relation to output reduction, says the report. Certainly, improved employment opportunities in countries where employment was once taken for granted will be a key element in maintaining the economic, social and political transformation that is under way, it adds.

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Stressing that "high and productive levels of employment ... are fundamental means of combating poverty, of ensuring equity, of meeting peoples' aspirations for participation in economic and social life, and for preserving social cohesion", the report reviews employment policy issues from countries and regions around the world and presents policy recommendations.

Highlights of the findings include the following:

-- Economic growth rates need to be pushed higher in order to increase the rate of employment growth;

-- Political and social stability are as essential to economic progress as is macroeconomic stability;

-- Consensual approaches to income determination can be an additional instrument for increasing employment and stabilizing prices;

-- The excessive rigours of structural adjustment policies in indebted poor countries need to be moderated;

-- In some countries, "a more gradual and selective approach to trade liberalization may be warranted"; and

-- Government action to initiate growth, such as incentives to new investment, are needed to offset shortcomings in pure market mechanisms.

In connection with the discussion of productive employment and sustainable livelihoods by the Commission's forthcoming session, a two-part panel discussion on employment strategies by international experts will be held next week. The first panel, scheduled for 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 26 February, in Conference Room 2, will be chaired by the Director of the Division for Social Policy and Development of the Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development, John Langmore. The second, chaired by ILO Director General Michel Hansenne, will be held at the same time and location the next day, Thursday, 27 February.

Panelists on 26 February include the General Secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) Bill Jordan; the President of the Employers' Federation of Pakistan Ashraf Tabani; the Senior Policy Analyst in the Office of Development Studies of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Isabelle Grunberg; and the Director General of the Alternativa Centro de Investigación Social y Educación Popular Jesus Aguilar Cruz. On 27 February, panelists include the Member of the House of Representatives of Australia Ralph Willis; Executive Vice-Chairman of the Hungarian Socialist Party Magda Kósa Kovács; and the Minister for Employment and Social Welfare of Ghana David S. Boateng.

For further information, or to obtain a copy of the report, contact, at the Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development, John Langmore, tel. (212)-963-5855; and at the Department of Public Information (DPI), Elizabeth Ruzicka-Dempsey, tel. (212) 963-1742, or Tim Wall, tel (212) 963-5851.

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