ILO: highest labor productivity recorded in U.S.

PanARMENIAN.Net - The International Labor Organization (ILO) has issued the 7th edition of its flagship “Key Indicators of the Labor Market (KILM)”, covering 18 indicators on employment and decent work with the latest available data for more than 200 countries, areas or territories worldwide.

According to ILO’s press release, a key new element of the 7th edition of the KILM is the first international database of national estimates of working poverty, based on data from 54 countries and disaggregated by age group and sex. This enhanced database provides new global figures regarding those who work but are living with their families below the USD 1.25 and USD 2 per person, per day poverty lines.

This year’s KILM also contains data on unemployment, labor force participation rates, status in employment, employment by sector, part-time workers, youth employment, education attainment and illiteracy, and poverty and income distribution, among others. And for the first time, two new indicators are introduced: average monthly wages and employment by occupation.

While wages grew at an average rate of 2.7 per cent in 2006 and 2.8 per cent in 2007, global wage growth slowed to 1.5 per cent in 2008 and 1.6 per cent in 2009.

In most countries youth unemployment rates are between two and three times greater than those of adults. In some countries, such as in parts of Asia, North Africa and the Middle East, it is even 5 times greater, with youth unemployment rates often exceeding 18 per cent.

For decades, the highest labor productivity, measured as GDP per person engaged, has been recorded in the United States. However, over half (68 out of 121) of the countries with available data achieved faster growth in labor productivity than the U.S. over the period from 2000 to 2010.