Global unemployment is slated to rise slightly in 2023, by around 3 million, to 208 million (corresponding to a global unemployment rate of 5.8 per cent). This would mark a reversal of the decline in global unemployment seen between 2020-2022. The report also identifies a new, comprehensive measure of the unmet need for employment – the global jobs gap. Globally, the labour force participation rate of women stood at 47.4 per cent in 2022, compared with 72.3 per cent for men. For every economically inactive man, there are two such women.
Young people (aged 15–24) face severe difficulties in finding decent employment. Their unemployment rate is three times that of adults. More than one-in-five – 23.5 per cent of young people are not in employment, education or training.
In Asia and the Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean, annual employment growth is projected to be around 1 per cent. In Northern America there will be few or no employment gains in 2023 and unemployment will pick up, says the report.
Europe and Central Asia are particularly hard hit by the economic fallout from the Ukraine conflict. But while employment is projected to decline in 2023, their unemployment rates should increase only slightly given the backdrop of limited growth in the working-age population.
