ILO REPORT SAYS GLOBALIZATION CAUSES JOB LOSSES (fwd)

This is probably not big news to most subscribers to this list, but it's
interesting that the World Bank/ILO are reporting this...

ds

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 13:39:07 -0700
From: Gilbert G. Gonzalez <gggonzal@uci.edu>
Reply-To: ETHNICSTUDIES@uci.edu

>
>>From the World Bank's Development News, June 21, 2000
>
>ILO REPORT SAYS GLOBALIZATION CAUSES JOB LOSSES 
>
>       Increasing trade liberalization and the effects of globalization 
>have 
>resulted in job losses and less secure work arrangements, the 
>International Labor Organization said in a study released yesterday. 
>Some 75% of the world's 150 million jobless have no unemployment 
>benefits and the vast majority of populations in many developing 
>countries has no social protection whatsoever, the report added.
>       According to the ILO's "World Labor Report 2000," most 
>industrialized countries have reduced unemployment insurance, limiting 
>eligibility and cutting benefits in the past decade. Among the countries 
>providing less worker benefits and belonging to a second-tier position 
>globally were Australia, Canada, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, the 
>United Kingdom and the United States. Many European countries over 
>the past 10 years have lead in assuring unemployment benefits, even 
>though European governments have reduced their assistance programs. 
>Critics of unemployment programs and other social protection schemes 
>have argued that countries with high levels of benefits, like those in 
>Europe, are so burdened with social costs that they cannot compete with 
>economies providing less assistance. The report's chief author, Roger 
>Beattie, called such criticism "naive," arguing that countries can 
>simultaneously protect their workers and expand their economies.
>       "Countries can increase social security spending, and it will take 
>out 
>only 20% of future real increases in earnings," he said (Elizabeth Olson, 
>International Herald Tribune, 21 June). 
>       The study warns of the dangers of reducing or eliminating jobless 
>benefits. "Alarmist rhetoric notwithstanding, social protection, even in 
>the 
>supposedly expensive forms to be found in most advanced countries, is 
>affordable in the long term," says ILO Director-General Juan Somavia in 
>the report's introduction. "It is affordable because it is essential for 
>people, but also because it is productive in the longer term. Societies 
>which do not pay enough attention to security, especially the security of 
>their weaker members, eventually suffer a destructive backlash," he said 
>(ILO release, 21 June). 
>       The report also takes into account underemployed and informal 
>sector workers, noting that these people "earn very low incomes and 
>have an extremely limited capacity to contribute to social protection 
>schemes." For these workers, the ILO study suggests that governments 
>should provide assistance by employing them in labor-intensive 
>infrastructure programs, such as road construction or land reclamation. 
>The report notes India's Jawahar Rozgar Yojana and Maharashtra 
>Government's Employment Scheme as examples of employment 
>guarantee programs (Chennai Hindu, 20 June). 
>       The report highlights several trends and issues affecting social 
>protection services today:
>       The number of people living in extreme poverty has risen by 200 
>million in the past five years, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, Central 
>Asia, 
>Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. 850 million people earn less than a 
>living wage or work less than they want. Poverty is a major factor in 
>driving 250 million children into the labor force, jeopardizing their 
>education. In several developed countries, divorce rates have increased 
>up to 500% over the past 30 years, creating more single-parent 
>households. In many of these same countries, births to unmarried 
>women jumped up to six times in the same 20-year period, creating even 
>more single-parent households. Poverty rates for households headed by 
>a single mother are at least three times higher than for two-parent 
>households in a number of developed countries. Social security 
>spending as a percentage of gross domestic product has risen in most 
>countries from 1975-1992, with several exceptions, mainly in Africa and 
>Latin America. Changes in family structures, as well as rising 
>unemployment and income inequality, have caused an increase in child 
>poverty rates between the 1960s and the 1990s. Due to falling fertility 
>rates worldwide, more women are able to enter the work force. The drop 
>in fertility has also created a population that is rapidly aging, reducing
>the 
>ratio of workers to retired individuals.
>       The report outlines measures for improving income security for 
>women:
>
>*  Programs such as maternity benefits, child care facilities and 
>parental leave, that allow men and women to combine employment 
>and child rearing as well as improving women's access to work. 
>*  The extension of social security to all employees, including those in 
>categories in which women are heavily represented -- domestic and 
>part-time workers. 
>*  Recognition of unpaid child rearing work through the endowment of 
>credits via contributory systems or by providing universal benefits 
>(ILO release).
>
>
>This summary is prepared by the External Affairs Department of the 
>World Bank. All material is taken directly from published and copyright 
>wire service stories and newspaper articles.
>
>For more news go to http://www.worldbank.org/news
>To subscribe or unsubscribe go to http://www.worldbank.org/devnews
>
>
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