The InterDependent

The economic rise in most Latin American and Caribbean countries in 2010 led to a 0.6 percentage point drop in unemployment, to 7.5 percent from 8.1 percent in 2009. The unemployment rate is expected to further decline between 0.2 and 0.4 percentage points this year, the United Nations reported this month.

The indications of recovery, however, do not ensure that growth with decent work will continue in the long term, the UN warned.

“To bolster the improvement in labor market indicators and generate more productive employment and decent work, the region’s countries need to strengthen their macroeconomic policies, improve regional and global policy coordination, identify and remove bottlenecks in the labor market itself and enhance instruments designed to promote greater equality,” the report added.

Issued by the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean and the UN International Labour Organization, the study noted that international trade and financial conditions, as well as increases in domestic demands generated economic growth of around 6 percent for the region in 2010. (By contrast, the US showed a 3.2 percent increase in gross domestic product for the fourth quarter of 2010 over the previous year’s rate.) Growth in 2011 is not expected to be as high.

The UN also issued a global labor report this month, finding that the international unemployment rate was 6.2 percent in 2010. That translated to 205 million people out of work, unchanged from 2009 but still 28 million higher than in 2007, when the global recession first hit. The lack of jobs is likely to continue at the record highs of the last three years, the UN said, advocating for more job-creating policies worldwide. (For more information, go to www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/@publ/documents/publi...)

The recovery in the Latin America-Caribbean region has also meant a moderate increase in real wages, thanks to lower inflation, the report said, but the performance of some countries and subregions has been uneven.

Eskinder Debebe/UN Photo

Brazilian sugar-cane workers exercising before harvesting in Orindiuva. The country is a leading ethanol producer in the world, using sugar cane as its stock.

For example, rapid economic growth in Brazil has been accompanied by strong creation of formal jobs and a drop in unemployment rate not seen in a long time. Other countries in South America have also benefited from trade with Asia for natural resources. Combined with higher domestic demand, this dynamic has raised many South American countries’ growth rates and improved employment rates.

Yet the recovery is still weak in some places, particularly the Caribbean, where employment rates worsened in Barbados, Honduras, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago in the first nine months of 2010. (Venezuela's also went up.) In that same period over the previous year, the unemployment rate for women was 1.4 times greater than for men, with the largest gap in Jamaica (1.7 times) and the smallest in Mexico.

In the six countries reporting on youth unemployment, rates are down, except for Venezuela, with 18 percent of people 15 to 24 years old without jobs there.

This year the Latin American-Caribbean region is expecting a 4.8 percent rise in gross domestic product. Like the rest of the world, the area is facing the challenge of producing goods sustainably. Climate change and efforts to develop and strengthen low-carbon production and consumption patterns will also affect livelihoods, the report noted.

A major impetus is to spawn well-paying green jobs. Although the concept of green jobs is fairly new to the region, some countries are making progress.

Costa Rica has a policy that includes training in natural-resource management; while in Brazil, fuel production from biomass sources has increased, and government housing with solar paneling is being built. Other countries, like Guatemala, are focusing on ecotourism and sustainable agriculture.

To read the full report, go to www.eclac.cl/publicaciones/xml/5/42005/2010-995-ECLAC-ILO_Bulletin_4_WEB...