NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 16 – Majority of workers in low-income and lower-middle-income countries such as Kenya will be forced to accept lower quality jobs which are poorly paid and lack job security and social protection in 2023 as economic activity slows globally, a new report shows.
According to the World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2023 report, the continuing shortage of better job opportunities is likely to worsen despite a nascent recovery in 2021.
The report notes that recovery in job opportunities has been lagging behind in low-income and lower-middle-income countries, where many indicators of decent work are particularly worrisome.
“This trend comes on top of significant declines in income seen during the COVID-19 crisis, which in many countries affected low-income groups worst,” the report prepared by the International Labour Organization (ILO) notes.
ILO noted that as prices rise faster than nominal labour incomes, the cost-of-living crisis risks pushing more people into poverty.
“This risk is particularly elevated for those at the bottom of the highly unequal income distribution; the lower half of workers globally earn only about 8 per cent of total labour income,” the report notes.
Further, the report noted that low-income and lower-middle-income countries will continue to face the challenge of integrating a large youth population into the labour market.
Africa is projected to account for almost half of the global labour force expansion (16 million workers per year) while accounting for only a fifth of the global labour force.
“The large number of young people projected to enter the labour market poses its own challenges, since young people face particular difficulties in this process,” the report noted.
On a positive front, ILO noted that low-income and lower-middle-income countries are projected to see employment growth surpassing their pre-pandemic growth trend.
Globally, employment is projected to expand by 1.0 per cent in 2023, a significant deceleration from the 2.3 per cent growth rate of 2022.
