RUNNING HEAD: SOCIAL SCIENCES.

The 2008-2009 great recession and its effects was evident in the economy. It had a lot of
negative effects, but one positive aspect is that it created interest in the economy. It also brought
a new outlook to the unemployment problem (Schiller, Hill, & Wall, 2013). This meant new
ways of teaching economics and interpreting economic information. The new approaches are
used in interpretation of the effects of the great recession and this provides a guide to the
summary of the International Labour Organization report (Schiller, Hill, & Wall, 2013).
Summary of International Labour Report
Following the economic recession, there was an uneven economic recovery process and,
therefore, projections of economic growth had to be revised downwards, and this impacted
negatively on the global employment situation in 2013 (International Labour Organization,
2014). This essentially means that employment is not sufficiently expanding with a huge number
of unemployed being in East and South Asia. Generally, the unemployment gap occasioned by
the recession is continuously widening, and it reached 62 million and out of this, 23 million
becoming discouraged to look for jobs and 7 million preferring not to involve themselves in the
labour market (International Labour Organization, 2014).
The continuation of such unemployment trends is expected with the number of
unemployed reaching 215 million by 2018. Approximately 40 million jobs will be annually
created that is below the 42.6 million new entrants in the labour market (International Labour
Organization, 2014). Therefore, the unemployment rate I, is expected to be constant in at least
the next 5 years, and it is at 0.5% higher than before the recession. The youth continue suffering
too with approximately 74.5 million youth (15-24 years) being unemployed in 2013, 1 million
more than in 2014. The unemployment rate has reached 13.1% with the youth-to-adult ratio
reaching an all time high with young people neither employed, nor in education or training
(NEET) steeping upward (International Labour Organization, 2014).
The weak recovery process is ongoing, and this has increased the rate of unemployment
spells indicating the weak attempts of job creation which has doubled compared to the pre-crisis
period (International Labour Organization, 2014). This creates a burden to the government in the
form of taxes and jobseekers in terms of loss of skills. Furthermore, the participation of the
labour force is not changing especially in East and South Asia. Educational attainment is on the
rise with more young people entering the job market, therefore, securing future prospects while
in the other regions, the opposite is happening and to compensate for the loss of household
income they engage in informal employment (International Labour Organization, 2014).
Vulnerable employment forms 48% of total employment these are more likely to lack
accessibility to the social security or secure income than the formally employed. This number of
the vulnerably unemployed has increased to around 1% in the past year that is 5 times higher
before the recession (International Labour Organization, 2014). The number of poor people is
reducing globally, but at a slower rate. However, this progress has stalled where there was only
2.7% reduction in 2013 the lowest rate in the past decade. Finally, informal employment is
dominant in developing countries with considerable regional variations. Some regions informal
employment is up to 90%, but the lack of formal employment acts as a barrier to poverty
eradication (International Labour Organization, 2014).
Aggregate demand deficits hinder faster recovery in labour markets and currently, fiscal
consolidations being undertaken drag speedy expansion of growth in output adding on to weak
private consumption. Rebalancing macroeconomic policies and increasing labour income will
increase the unemployment outlook. Simulated results suggest unemployment will reduce by
1.8% by 2020 in the G20 countries. These support fiscal goals and improve the baseline status
quo (International Labour Organization, 2014). Monetary policy is more accommodative and
provide aggregate demand stimulus. However, studies indicate that increased share due to
increased liquidity flows to the asset market rather than the real economy generating risk of
future stock and housing price bubbles weighing on sustainable job recovery (International
Labour Organization, 2014).
Approximately 23 million people have been discouraged and left the labour market and
the increased unemployment rate; active labour market policies (ALMP) should be implemented
that addresses inactivity and the mismatch of skills. This will reduce the increasing degradation
and obsolescence of skills. Currently, only a small amount of countries are spending into the
active labour market measures, and they are likely to benefit most in improved functioning of the
labour market (International Labour Organization, 2014).

References
International Labour Organization. (2014). Global Employment Trends 2014: Risk of a jobless
recovery? Geneva: International Labour Organization.

Schiller, B. R., Hill, C., & Wall, S. (2014). The Macroeconomy Today. New York, NY:
McGraw-Hill/Irwin.