Canada should focus on job stimulation instead of austerity: report

mentalfloss

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Canada must focus on job creation: UN agency

Developed countries such as Canada could face "severe consequences" for employment unless they focus on job growth through renewed stimulus measures, rather than turning toward austerity efforts, a new global report warns.

The International Labour Organization, a United Nations agency based in Switzerland, released its annual global-employment trends report Tuesday.

Developed countries have started to implement austerity measures that are hurting the labour market, Ekkehard Ernst, chief of the employment trends unit, told Postmedia News.

"As a group, in total, that creates this kind of negative feedback loop, whereby growth decelerates under the impression of global austerity and further depresses the situation, thereby triggering another round of austerity measures," Ernst said.

"This is obviously then having severe consequences for global labour markets and for labour markets in developed regions."

The International Labour Organization predicts that developed economies will see their combined unemployment rate rise to 8.6 per cent this year from 8.5 per cent last year. In a worst-case scenario, that unemployment rate could jump to 9.6 per cent by 2013, the group said.

"That would include Canada," Ernst said.

The International Labour Organization recommends that developed countries turn from austerity measures to stimulus efforts that would benefit not just their own countries, but also the broader global economy.

"What we, in particular, recommend is that countries should concentrate on measures like social security measures as they have been implemented in particular in Canada or the U.S., where there was an extension of unemployment benefits, and these measures should be continued or broadened if possible to make sure that the unemployment situation does not have such a negative feedback," Ernst said.

"The focus should be on jobs more than anything else."

Canada has planned cuts in its federal spending, with a special focus on public-sector wages and cuts to the operating costs of federal departments, according to the report. The projected consolidation period for these measures is 2010 to 2015.

Canada added 17,500 jobs in December, but the unemployment rate edged up to 7.5 per cent from 7.4 per cent in November as more people entered the labour market in search of work, according to Statistics Canada's most recent numbers. The gains followed 54,000 job losses in October and another 18,600 in November.

Economists had expected 20,000 jobs to be added in December.

The global economy has been weakening rapidly, the International Labour Organization report says, which is increasing the threat of a prolonged jobs recession.

The organization says that nearly 200 million people are currently unemployed. Globally, young people ages 15 to 24 are three times as likely as adults to be unemployed.

The agency challenged political and business leaders to create 600 million productive jobs over the next decade — a number the agency said would generate sustainable growth while maintaining social cohesion, but that would still leave 900 million workers living with their families below the poverty line, and mostly in developing countries.
 

JLM

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Canada must focus on job creation: UN agency

Developed countries such as Canada could face "severe consequences" for employment unless they focus on job growth through renewed stimulus measures, rather than turning toward austerity efforts, a new global report warns.




That might work to a very limited extent. Where you have a job you have to have a product or a service and where you have either of those you need to have customers with the means to buy and not too many people in the world have those means these days, so some other enterprize will have to be displaced. I'm betting they wouldn't be Big Macs or Timmys.
 

Machjo

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Any job stimulus ought to be wisely spent, and then only as a last resort.

Before stimulus spending, I'd advise:

1. Eliminate the official mandatory minimum wage,

2. Let ministries of education at home and abroad harmonize educational standards for various trades and professions so as to make workers more mobile,

3. Promote freer labour-movement agreements between Canada and other countries,

4. In the event of a deflationary spiral, reduce the Bank rate,

5. and if you still need more stimulous, print only enough money to counter the deflationary spiral and put it towards the debt.

Only once those things are done should we look at stimulous spending.

And all that should fail and we must spend, then let's spend in a targeted manner such as education for the unemployed for trades in demand.

I'm for stimulous spending, but only as a last resort, and even then in a targeted manner.

And if that all fails, then maybe recruit into some kind of Peace Corps focussed on serving the community where needed.
 

mentalfloss

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Hmm.. I'm not sure if stimulus "spending" is required as much as government action which would stimulate job growth. It may not be necessary to have any spending, but it is true that austerity in the wrong places could actually harm the economy.

Ultimately, it's government policy that will determine the future of our respective economies.


600 million new jobs needed in next 10 years says ILO


GENEVA (AFP) – The International Labour Organization on Tuesday released a pessimistic report for the global jobs market in 2012 saying urgent attention is needed to create 600 million new jobs in the next 10 years.

“Despite strenuous government efforts, the jobs crisis continues unabated, with one in three workers worldwide, or an estimated 1.1 billion people, either unemployed or living in poverty,” said ILO director-general, Juan Somavia, in the Global Employment Trends 2012 report.

“What is needed is that job creation in the real economy must become our number one priority,” he said. “Whether we recover or not from this crisis will depend on how effective government policies ultimately are.”

The report said governments must coordinate and act decisively “to reduce the fear and uncertainty that is hindering private investment so that the private sector can restart the main engine of global job creation.”

ILO senior economist Ekkehard Ernst said at a press conference the recovery started in 2009 was short-lived and there were nearly 29 million fewer people in the labour force now than “would be expected based on pre-crisis trends”.

“Our forecast has become much more pessimistic than last year, with the possibility of a serious deceleration of the growth rate,” he said.

The report refers to “discouraged workers”, those who have decided to stop looking for work because they feel they have no chance of finding a job and are considered economically inactive.

If these discouraged workers were counted as unemployed, then global unemployment would swell from the current 197 million to 225 million, and the unemployment rate would rise from 6 per cent to 6.9 per cent,” Ernst said.

Young people continued to be the hardest hit by the jobs crisis.

“Judging by the present course,” the report says, “there is little hope for a substantial improvement in their near-term employment prospects.”

The ILO says 74.8 million youths aged 15-24 were unemployed in 2011, an increase of more than four million since 2007 in the total global labour force of 3.3 billion.

Globally young people are nearly three times as likely as adults to be unemployed. The global youth unemployment rate, at 12.7 per cent, remains a full percentage point above the pre-crisis level.

Ernst and fellow ILO economist Moazam Mahmood recommended additional public spending “to support both the domestic and global economies.”

The report warned that outside of Asia, developing regions have lagged behind developed economies in labour productivity growth, raising the risk of a further divergence in living standards and limiting prospects for poverty reduction.

600 million new jobs needed in next 10 years says ILO
 

darkbeaver

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You're not paying attention to the Harper governments forigne policy which absolutely promises to deliver 100% employment suppressing the germinating free world. Good paying jobs too, some of us might even earn our lives. 600 million new jobs is certainly possible.
 

mentalfloss

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I'm sure those cut off from the public sector, will move to the private sector - but does that mean that there will actually be employment growth?
 

JLM

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I'm sure those cut off from the public sector, will move to the private sector - but does that mean that there will actually be employment growth?

Depends how you define "employment growth"! The jobs will likely pay less, but on the other hand they may actually be producing something! :smile:
 

mentalfloss

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Depends how you define "employment growth"! The jobs will likely pay less, but on the other hand they may actually be producing something! :smile:

I'm referring specifically to an increase in the number of jobs.
 

mentalfloss

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It depends on the details.

Which of course.. we don't know.


13% of World's Youth Unemployed in 2011

Nearly 13 percent of the world's youth -- those between the age of 15 and 24-- were jobless last year.

This is according to a new report, by the International Labor Organization.

The report pointed out that, young people are three times as likely, to be without a job, compared to their older counterparts.

The announcement also came with a warning that, the situation won't improve very much for younger job-seekers in the near future.

The organization forecast that, as the global economy will likely face further stresses this year, the global unemployment rate, is expected to stay at the current average of six percent until 2016.

http://www.arirang.co.kr/News/News_View.asp?nseq=125139&code=Ne2&category=2
 
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damngrumpy

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First of all concentrating on job creation is another way of saying give tax breaks
to business without scrutiny, and allow more regulatory freedom. Well we know
what that got us up to 2008 don't we. I think we should weather the storm here a
bit until we see where the world is going.
As for cutting red tape and allowing more world access to labour markets, not a
chance. That is an invitation for the World Trade folks to bring back the plan they
were hatching that got found out in France by accident. Once you do that these
companies will bring workers into Canada and they will work under the labour
conditions of their home country. That was the old plan of the WTO and their one
world order idea.
I think we have to use our resources as the best leaver we have. All logs should be
processed before leaving Canada. NO more Raw Logs, period.
No more pipelines that send oil petroleum resources to provide jobs for someone else.
In addition we need to look at the ore we ship out, steel and other products should
be milled here before shipping.
Also education and retraining must be invested in along with post secondary education.
We have to view education as an investment not an expense and slowly gear toward
a average marks based free post secondary system. That is where if you maintain a
grade average you education costs would be covered by government. In exchange,
depending on the training and investment, once you finished your schooling, you would
work in the society for period of time at a percentage pay scale to at least pay part of
the cost of the training. That way the student would not have a loan and the nation
could benefit from you trained input. Say working for seventy five percent of the pay
scale for three years, they everyone is even. New graduates would fill the posts of
those moving on like an apprentice system.
We have thousands of jobs that go begging to be filled because Canadians are not
qualified or trained to do them and unless we address this issue unemployment will
always be higher than we would like. We do not need to import workers we need
to train the citizens we have that have a loyalty to this country, and the ability to contribute
if we provide the opportunity.
 

Machjo

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 19, 2004
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First of all concentrating on job creation is another way of saying give tax breaks
to business without scrutiny, and allow more regulatory freedom. Well we know
what that got us up to 2008 don't we. I think we should weather the storm here a
bit until we see where the world is going.

Banks absolutely need to be regulated.

[/quote]As for cutting red tape and allowing more world access to labour markets, not a
chance. That is an invitation for the World Trade folks to bring back the plan they
were hatching that got found out in France by accident.
Of course domestic labour laws must be enforced.

I think we have to use our resources as the best leaver we have. All logs should be
p/rocessed before leaving Canada. NO more Raw Logs, period.

I agree in principle but not quite to the same extreme. I do agree though that the government should demand a higher price for crown resources. That would naturally push the cost of Canadian resources up, thus reducing our exports, thus pushing down the Canadian dollar exchange rate, thus increasing our exports of non-resource products. But a total ban might be a little extreme in my view, not to mention the ethics of denying other countries that don't have resources of their own to our resources. Then it sounds more like beggar thy neighbour politics at that stage.
Also education and retraining must be invested in along with post secondary education.
I do agree with post-secondary and skills education funding as long as it be done in a just manner giving access to all.

We have to view education as an investment not an expense and slowly gear toward
a average marks based free post secondary system. That is where if you maintain a
grade average you education costs would be covered by government. In exchange,
depending on the training and investment, once you finished your schooling, you would
work in the society for period of time at a percentage pay scale to at least pay part of
the cost of the training. That way the student would not have a loan and the nation
could benefit from you trained input. Say working for seventy five percent of the pay
scale for three years, they everyone is even. New graduates would fill the posts of
those moving on like an apprentice system.

Kind of sounds like the Peace Corps concept I'd proposed.


We have thousands of jobs that go begging to be filled because Canadians are not
qualified or trained to do them and unless we address this issue unemployment will
always be higher than we would like. We do not need to import workers we need
to train the citizens we have that have a loyalty to this country, and the ability to contribute
if we provide the opportunity.

I agree that much of our unemployment is merely skills-deficient unemployment, but I disagree with the either-or scenario you propose. If we planned the economy right, we could easily ensure employment for all Canadians and still leave plenty of room for others who wish to work in Canada.

It would be possible to achieve this without adopting a beggar-thy-neighbour approach towards other countries too.