Victoria Mbura Munyi

Unemployment set to rise by around 2.5 million in 2020 Source: Google Photos High levels of joblessness continue to loom as job seekers, either earn less from fewer paid hours, or are unable to secure paid work The UN labor report states that as of this year, as high as half a billion people cannot secure decent work. This outlook is supported by the World Employment and Social Outlook which reveals that the global economy cannot create adequate jobs for new job seekers. Contributing factors From the figure below, the total labour underutilization supersedes unemployment by double, affecting more than 470 million job seekers. Labor supplier is lower than demand, hence, as many as 165 million people lack work due to the lack of desirable number of hours. Another about 120 million people are in employment but are not seriously seeking though they could do so in the near future. These figures, when added to the already existing 188 million unemployed people confirm that 2020 could see approximately 473 million people out of employment.  Having a paid job does not ensure a decent work for the 3.3 billion employed people, as of 2019. Workers from low- and middle-income economies (as many as 1.4 billion) often work in informal sectors, hence, are subjected to low pay, poor social protection, and illegal work labor-practices. These people take home lower wages than salaried employees. Source: World Employment and Social Outlook – Trends 2020 Poor working conditions and a drop in labor income premium across self-employed people is also contributing the same effect in developed countries. Employees in high-income economies also encounter poor earnings and informality. Consequently, the former and the latter factors are contributing to about 2 billion in informal employment globally, which is equivalent to 61 per cent of the world’s labor force. What to do about it Failure to secure decent salaries and work hours are the major factors causing an increase in unemployment. This year will be tougher than 2019 for job seekers – it is recommended that job seekers look for alternatives, such as: Passive income Enterpreneurial ideas Try new life hacks