ILO / WORLD OF WORK REPORT

As the global economy continues a slow recovery from the financial crisis, most emerging and developing countries are experiencing rising employment and narrowing income inequalities compared to their high-income counterparts. However, the gap between rich and poor in most low and middle-income countries remains wide. Many families who have managed to rise above the poverty line are at risk of lapsing back. ILO

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:24
• Production Date: 3 June 2013
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION - ILO
• Subject Topical: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT; FINANCING; ECONOMIC CONDITIONS; INVESTMENT BANKING
• MAMS Id: U130603h

Description

STORY: ILO / WORLD OF WORK REPORT
TRT: 01.24
SOURCE: ILO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 03 JUNE 2013, GENEVA

Shotlist

FILE – RECENT, GENEVA

1. Exterior shot, United Nations flag

03 JUNE 2013, GENEVA

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Raymond Torres, Director, ILO's International Institute for Labour Studies:
"The recovery is very uneven both across countries and within countries.”
3. Wide shot, conference room
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Raymond Torres, Director, ILO's International Institute for Labour Studies:
“A majority of advanced economies as well as Arab countries are still struggling with the crisis.”
5. Cutaway, conference room
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Raymond Torres, Director, ILO's International Institute for Labour Studies:
“Unemployment not only remains high but in some countries is accelerating.”
7. Cutaway, journalist’s notebook
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Raymond Torres, Director, ILO's International Institute for Labour Studies:
“We provide indications of the profitability situation by looking at executive pay, CEO pay, which for example in the case of the United States represents more than 500 times the earnings of the average American worker.”
9. Cutaway, journalist’s notebook
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Raymond Torres, Director, ILO's International Institute for Labour Studies:
“Small enterprises are facing more and more difficulty. They are disproportionately affected by the financial elements of the crisis.”
11. Cutaway, journalist’s notebook
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Raymond Torres, Director, ILO's International Institute for Labour Studies:
“So even people who have initiatives - in Spain, there are examples of small entrepreneurs who have one export market but in the end they cannot export because they don't have the credit guarantees from banks. This is a tragedy."
13. Wide shot, conference room

Storyline

As the global economy continues a slow recovery from the financial crisis, most emerging and developing countries are experiencing rising employment and narrowing income inequalities compared to their high-income counterparts.

However, the gap between rich and poor in most low and middle-income countries remains wide. Many families who have managed to rise above the poverty line are at risk of lapsing back.

SOUNDBITE (English) Raymond Torres, Director, ILO's International Institute for Labour Studies:
"The recovery is very uneven both across countries and within countries.”

SOUNDBITE (English) Raymond Torres, Director, ILO's International Institute for Labour Studies:
“A majority of advanced economies as well as Arab countries are still struggling with the crisis.”

By contrast, income inequalities have increased in advanced economies over the past two years, against the backdrop of increasing global unemployment – predicted to rise from the current 200 million to nearly 208 million by 2015.

According to the World of Work report 2013, “Repairing the economic and social fabric,” income inequalities rose between 2010 and 2011 in 14 of the 26 advanced economies surveyed, including France, Denmark, Spain and the United States. Inequality levels in seven of the remaining 12 countries were still higher than before the start of the crisis.

SOUNDBITE (English) Raymond Torres, Director, ILO's International Institute for Labour Studies:
“We provide indications of the profitability situation by looking at executive pay, CEO pay, which for example in the case of the United States represents more than 500 times the earnings of the average American worker.”

Economic inequalities are also on the rise, as small firms lag behind their larger counterparts in terms of profits and productive investment. While most large enterprises have regained access to capital markets, start-ups and small enterprises are disproportionately affected by bank credit conditions. This is a problem for job recovery now and affects economic prospects over the longer term.

SOUNDBITE (English) Raymond Torres, Director, ILO's International Institute for Labour Studies:
“Small enterprises are facing more and more difficulty. They are disproportionately affected by the financial elements of the crisis.”

SOUNDBITE (English) Raymond Torres, Director, ILO's International Institute for Labour Studies:
“So even people who have initiatives - in Spain, there are examples of small entrepreneurs who have one export market but in the end they cannot export because they don't have the credit guarantees from banks. This is a tragedy."

The report shows that middle-income groups in many advanced economies are shrinking, fuelled in part, by long-term unemployment, weakening job quality and workers dropping out of the labour market altogether.

By contrast, the report provides evidence that pay of chief executive officers in many of those countries has once again soared, following a short pause in the immediate aftermath of the global crisis.