[00:00.100]This is the VOA Learning English Economics Report.
[00:05.360]Organizations like the World Bank
[00:08.060]and the International Monetary Fund
[00:10.610]expect the international economy
[00:12.910]to perform better this year than in 2013.
[00:16.780]They also expect economic conditions to improve next year.
[00:21.620]Yet one United Nations agency worries
[00:25.020]that economic progress is not creating enough jobs
[00:28.810]for the millions of people seeking employment.
[00:32.540]The U.N.'s International Labor Organization
[00:35.920]is saying current economic growth
[00:38.220]has not helped the world's unemployed.
[00:41.270]The ILO released a report on employment this week.
[00:45.740]Guy Ryder of Britain is the Director General of the agency.
[00:50.490]He says the unemployment numbers for 2013
[00:54.290]represent an increase from the year before.
[00:59.030]That means new jobs created by economy growth
[01:02.590]are not keeping up with the number of people
[01:05.430]entering the job market.
[01:07.330]"The bottom line figure for 2013 is that there are nearly
[01:14.340]202 million people around the world unemployed,
[01:18.290]and that represents an increase of nearly
[01:22.290]five million on the previous year," said Ryder.
[01:25.440]The ILO says much of the increase came from East and South Asia,
[01:31.000]they were responsible for nearly half of the additional job seekers,
[01:36.070]many others came from sub-Saharan Africa and Europe.
[01:41.180]The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund,
[01:45.380]Christine Lagarde raised concerns about job creation
[01:49.730]during a speech earlier this month.
[01:52.270]She said unemployment remained, in her words,
[01:56.330]worryingly high in Europe,
[01:58.930]an area expected to show economic gains this year.
[02:03.590]One question is whether the current period of economic growth
[02:08.390]is leading to job creation.
[02:10.440]The ILO says, based on current information,
[02:14.740]the world will have 18 million more jobless individuals by 2018,
[02:20.650]many of these are young people between the ages of 15 and 24.
[02:26.500]Guy Ryder says youth unemployment is a major concern.
[02:32.560]"Young people are the particular victims of unemployment:
[02:36.910]74.5 million of the unemployed, aged between 15 and 24,
[02:43.610]that is one million more than the year before," said Ryder.
[02:47.570]The ILO says youth unemployment worldwide is over 13 percent.
[02:53.830]There has been success in reducing the number of working poor
[02:58.340]over the past 10 years.
[03:00.850]The ILO defines the working poor
[03:04.710]as individuals earning less than $1.25 a day.
[03:10.120]However, the group says 839 million people
[03:14.820]earn less than two dollars a day,
[03:17.260]that represents one-forth of the globe work force.
[03:21.380]Low wages, the group says, mean weak demand and fewer jobs
[03:27.430]created in areas like manufacturing and services.
[03:32.540]And that's the Economics Report for VOA Learning English.