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OECD Employment Ministerial: TUAC says "There's No Recovery Without Jobs"

23/09/2009

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A TUAC Delegation, led by Ron Blackwell, chief economist of the AFL-CIO, will tell OECD ministers meeting next week that fiscal stimulus packages should be extended and better targeted so as to get people back to work.

Trade unions will use consultations held as part of the OECD Employment Ministerial – taking place on the 28-29 September – to present the TUAC statement and deliver a strong message on jobs.

Between December 2007 and June 2009, almost 15 million OECD workers joined the ranks of the unemployed. Globally, by the end of 2009, unemployment is likely to increase to close to sixty million. The most disadvantaged – young workers, the low skilled, migrants, those in precarious work – have been the hardest hit. And the worst is still to come. Because labour markets lag behind economic recovery there is a high risk of prolonged labour market recession. The OECD predicts that unemployment will continue to rise reaching 10% in 2010, leaving a further 25 million without jobs.

“Employment and Labour Ministers must do much more to tackle this escalating jobs crisis. There can be no talk of recovery until people are going back to work”, said John Evans, General Secretary of TUAC.

TUAC contends that the fiscal stimulus packages have been insufficiently focused on creating jobs. The OECD estimates that the fiscal stimulus packages for 19 countries will generate between 3.2 and 5.5 million additional jobs in 2010 – a small fraction of the number of jobs lost so far. Global Unions called on G20 leaders meeting in Pittsburgh to continue and extend their fiscal stimulus measures until there is real recovery. TUAC is now calling on OECD Employment and Labour Ministers to ensure that the recovery packages maximise job creation, giving high priority to ‘green jobs’ – the building blocks of a low-carbon economy.

Employment and Labour Ministers must also ensure that governments use this period of slow growth and slack labour markets to train workers. Skills deteriorate rapidly in periods of extended unemployment, just as our economies need highly skilled workforces to recover from this crisis and build the foundations of future prosperity.

Looking beyond the immediate response to the Jobs Crisis, governments must lay the policy foundations for the creation of decent jobs and a productive workforce.

“This crisis has come on top of an explosion in inequality – the result of an economic model that denied workers their fair share of the fruits of growth” said Ron Blackwell, Chief Economist, AFL-CIO.  “When economies emerge from this recession, there must be no return to business as usual.  Ministers and the OECD must learn the lessons of this crisis and put in place labour market policies that create more secure and better paid jobs”.

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