Global Employment Trends
The International Labour Organization (ILO) has just published the annual report, “Global Employment Trends 2012: Preventing a Deeper Jobs Crisis.” According to the study, the world faces the “urgent challenge” of creating 600 million productive jobs over the next decade in order to generate sustainable growth and maintain social cohesion.
Moreover, the report claims that more than 400 million new jobs will be needed over the next decade to absorb the estimated 40-million-strong growth of the labor force each year.
The world faces the additional challenge of creating decent jobs for the estimated 900 million workers living with their families below the US$2 a day poverty line, mostly in developing countries.
According to the study, the recovery that started in 2009 has been short-lived and there are still 27 million more unemployed workers than at the start of the crisis. The fact that economies are not generating enough employment is reflected in the employment-to-population ratio (the proportion of the working-age population in employment), which suffered the largest decline on record between 2007 (61.2 per cent) and 2010 (60.2 per cent).
Access the full text here.



ExxonMobil heads this year’s edition of the PFC Energy 50 Ranking of the World’s Top Energy Companies with a market capitalization of $406.3 bn. PetroChina slides one place to #2 with a market valuation of $276.6 bn and is followed by Royal Dutch Shell in third place, with a $234.6 bn valuation.
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