On November 28, 2007, The United Nations released the 2007 Report on the World Social Situation. The report calls for governments to promote employment and decent work as their cornerstones of their economic and social policies. According to Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang at a press briefing to launch the report, “Employment and decent work need to be not a by-product but a central objective of development strategies.”
The 2007 Report on the World Social Situation addresses the fact that productive employment and decent work are essential to reduce poverty and promote social development. In arguing for decent work, which is defined by the International Labor Organization (ILO), as satisfying for the person performing it, promotes personal development, and contributes to the well-being of families and society, these are some of the recent trends of international markets documented within the report:
- Labor markets have been evolving in the direction of greater economic insecurity and greater levels of inequality, limiting people’s opportunity to live a life of decent work and satisfactory employment;
- Governments and employers around the world, in their desire to remain or become competitive, have taken many steps to increase labor-market flexibility, thus increasing insecurity among most groups of workers;
- There has been a global spread of informal employment and short-term contracts, giving workers fewer entitlements and little sense of job security;
- The deregulation, privatization and marketization of social services has led to reductions in employment and income security, as well as a loss of voice and representation for workers providing these services
- Labor security is further undermined by the globalization of financial markets and the emergence of a globalized labor supply;
- Statutory regulation is being replaced by self-regulation as part of the liberalization that has accompanied globalization, increasing work insecurity;
- Standardized and collective contracts are giving way to more individualized contracts based on direct bargaining between employers and workers, further shifting the balance of power in favor of employers; and
- The principle of social insurance can no longer be considered the cornerstone of social protection systems, since it is weaker in economies dominated by informal economic activities.
Such recent trends have the international community worried. Mr. Sha pointed out at the press briefing that, “Globally, despite robust rates of economic growth, employment creation is lagging behind growth of the working-age population. From 1996 to 2006, global output expanded by 3.8 per cent per year, yet unemployment rates increased from 6 to 6.3 per cent. Economic growth and job growth are not trending together, to the detriment of our societies and citizens.” Furthermore, inequality within society continues to increase as workers with low education and limited skills are the ones being hardest hit. Unfortunately, current macroeconomic and social policies have not been successful in lowering unemployment rates to desirable levels. Therefore, with the release of this 2007 report, governments must utilize this information for intergovernmental discussion and policy analysis to ensure that economic growth promotes human development.
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