World Employment and Social Outlook 2018

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) annual report: "World Employment and Social Outlook 2018"

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has launched its annual flagship report on "World Employment and Social Outlook 2018" which includes an improved methodology for measuring working poverty.

The report highlights the fact that the significant progress achieved in the past in reducing vulnerable employment has essentially stalled since 2012. This means that almost 1.4 billion workers are estimated to be in vulnerable employment in 2017, and that an additional 35 million are expected to join them by 2019. In developing countries, vulnerable employment affects three out of four workers.

“In developing countries though, progress in reducing working poverty is too slow to keep up with the expanding labour force. The number of workers living in extreme poverty is expected to remain stubbornly above 114 million for the coming years, affecting 40 per cent of all employed people in 2018,” explains ILO economist Stefan Kühn, lead author of the report.

The New Straits Times (Malaysia) reported that 'the report highlighted the hundreds of millions of people who remain poor despite holding one or more jobs'. In fact, it found that a majority of the 3.3 billion people employed around the globe last year suffered a “lack of material well-being, economic security, equal opportunities or scope for human development.”

“Being in employment does not always guarantee a decent living,” ILO research director Damian Grimshaw said in a statement, pointing out that “a full 700 million people are living in extreme or moderate poverty despite having employment.”

The report found that a full 61 percent of all workers worldwide, or two billion people, are in so-called informal employment, with little to no social and contractual protections.

Publication date

8 April, 2019