http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=acW.yLh.Xl5U&refer=home
(Update1)
By Toru Fujioka
March 31 (Bloomberg) -- Japan’s recession deepened as the unemployment rate surged to a three-year high, wages fell and job openings plunged at the fastest pace in three decades.
The jobless rate rose to 4.4 percent last month from 4.1 percent in January, the statistics bureau said today in Tokyo. The ratio of jobs available to each applicant tumbled to 0.59 from 0.67, the biggest drop since 1974, the Labor Ministry said.
Companies from Toyota Motor Corp. to NEC Corp. are firing thousands of workers, increasing pressure on the government to give more assistance to the nation’s jobless, most of whom don’t receive benefits. Prime Minister Taro Aso said the government plans to unveil a stimulus package in mid-April that will include aid for households.
“We don’t think this is the ceiling for the unemployment rate,” said Kyohei Morita, chief economist at Barclays Capital in Tokyo, who expects it to reach a record 5.7 percent this year. “Manufacturers are going to keep cutting costs by suppressing employment.”
Wages slid 2.7 percent as a record slump in exports forced manufacturers to slash production and overtime. Household spending fell 3.5 percent, a 12th monthly decline, indicating domestic demand is unlikely to make up for the collapse in exports. Purchases by consumers account for more than half of the economy.
The yen fell to 98.27 per dollar at 5:57 p.m. in Tokyo from 97.36 before the reports, and is heading for its biggest quarterly loss in seven years. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 1.5 percent.
Sentiment Tumbles
Sentiment among the nation’s largest manufacturers probably tumbled to its lowest level in more than 30 years, the Bank of Japan’s Tankan survey is expected to show tomorrow. Exports fell an unprecedented 49.4 percent in February from a year earlier. Factory output slid 9.4 percent from January, when it declined a record 10.2 percent, a report showed yesterday.
Suzuki Motor Corp., Japan’s fourth-largest automaker, said yesterday it will shut some domestic factories for up to seven days next month to get rid of inventories.
Overtime compensation dropped an unprecedented 18.5 percent last month as manufacturers cut extra working hours by a record 47.7 percent, today’s Labor Ministry report showed.
Aso, speaking to reporters before heading to the Group of 20 summit in London, said compiling his newest stimulus package is his highest priority and the government needs to take measures to prevent the economy from “falling apart.” Since he took office in September, Aso has announced stimulus measures in two plans totaling 10 trillion yen ($102 billion).
Debt Burden
The government’s ability to spend may be limited as the nation’s debt burden is set to rise to 197.3 percent of gross domestic product next year, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a report today. The ratio is the highest among OECD-member countries and almost double that of the U.S., where the ratio is projected to rise to 100 percent, OECD data show.
Some 77 percent of jobless people aren’t getting unemployment benefits, the highest figure among Group of Seven nations except Italy, whose data weren’t available, the International Labour Organization said in a report last week.
“The policy response has been pretty slow in creating a safety net for unemployment, which is putting downward pressure on the whole economy,” said Noriaki Matsuoka, an economist at Daiwa Asset Management Co. in Tokyo.
The jobless rate will reach a postwar high of 5.5 percent in the first quarter of next year, according to the median estimate of 14 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
Oki Electric Industry Co., a maker of communications equipment, said it will cut administrative workers after weakening demand forced it to widen its loss forecast this month.
Harder to Find
New jobs are also becoming harder to find as companies try to contain costs. A total of 1,845 graduates had their job offers rescinded as of March 23, up 17 percent from February, the Labor Ministry said.
Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, this month said it will almost halve recruitment of graduates in Japan to the lowest in 14 years after forecasting its first loss in almost six decades. NEC, Japan’s largest personal computer maker, said it plans to cut new hires by almost 90 percent to 100 people.
NEC said in January that it will eliminate 20,000 jobs worldwide and Toyota plans to trim its workforce by at least 3,000.
“Japan’s labor market will keep deteriorating,” said Yoshiki Shinke, a senior economist at Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo. “The question is how much consumer spending will become a drag on the economy as wages and employment conditions worsen.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Toru Fujioka in Tokyo at tfujioka1@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: March 31, 2009 05:14 EDT
Japan’s Jobless Rate Jumps to Three-Year High of 4.4%
beacon of hope for seafarers
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=A+beacon+of+hope+for+seafarers&artid=535dTHLy5ok=&SectionID=lifojHIWDUU=&MainSectionID=lifojHIWDUU=&SEO=National+Maritime+Day.&SectionName=rSY%7C6QYp3kQ=
G Saravanan
First Published :
29 Mar 2009 03:24:00 AM
ISTLast Updated : 29 Mar 2009 09:15:49 AM ISTCHENNAI: The Maritime Labour Convention-2006, which has been designed to become a global legal instrument once it comes into force by 2011, will be the ‘Fourth Pillar’ of the international regulatory regime for quality shipping, Partha Basu, a maritime expert has said.
He was addressing the members of the marine fraternity during a seminar organised in connection with the National Maritime Day.
By consolidating the key Conventions of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) such as the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974, (SOLAS), the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watch-keeping, 1978, (STCW) and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 73/78 (MARPOL), the proposed MLC-2006 is expected to become a comprehensive set of global standards based on the already existing 68 maritime labour instruments (Conventions and Recommendations), adopted by the ILO since 1920.
According to Basu, the Convention aims to achieve worldwide protection for all seafarers. It is estimated that there are over 1.2 million people working in this sector across the world. Until now, it was clear that these people, particularly those who worked on board ships (but are not directly involved in navigating or operating the ship such as many personnel that work on passenger ships) would be considered seafarers. The new Convention clearly defines a seafarer as any person who is employed or engaged or works in any capacity on board a ship that is covered by the Convention.
The Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, aims to establish a continuous ‘compliance awareness’ at every stage, from the national systems of protection up to the international system.
It covers the minimum requirements for seafarers to work on a ship, conditions of employment, hours of work and rest, wages, leave, repatriation, accommodation, recreational facilities, food and catering, occupational safety and health protection, medical care, welfare and social security protection.
Though there are several such conventions that are available for seafarers, but most of them are either outdated or very difficult to implement. In such circumstances, seafarers across the globe feel that the new MLC-2006 would be a ‘one stop shop’ for the demands in the maritime industry.
The Convention also establishes a strong compliance and enforcement mechanism based on flag State inspection and certification of seafarers’ working and living conditions.
To become a law acceptable to all countries, the MLC-2006, requires ratification by at least 30 ILO member states with a total share in the world gross tonnage of ships of at least 33 per cent. To date, the Convention has been ratified by Liberia, the Republic of Marshall Islands and The Bahamas, and by Panama and Norway. European Union countries are in the process to ratify the convention by 2010.
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International Labor Organization: 90 million new jobs needed
http://ph.news.yahoo.com/star/20090326/tph-international-labor-organization-90-541dfb4.html
Philstar.com - Friday, March 27MANILA, Philippines - Nearly 90 million jobs are needed to absorb the new entrants in the labor market and cut short the ongoing global financial and job crisis, the International Labor Organization (ILO) reported yesterday.
In a report titled the “Financial and Economic Crisis: A Decent Work Response,” the ILO said close to 90 million new jobs are needed up to 2010 to avoid a prolonged jobs gap.
ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said governments also need to implement a “global jobs pact” to prevent the severe job crisis that could lead to a massive increase in unemployment and poverty.
“If stimulus efforts are delayed, the jobs crisis will be prolonged and employment may only start to recover by 2011,” Somavia said.
In earlier financial crises, Somavia said the labor market recovered only 4 to 5 years after the economic recovery.
At this time, Somavia said, the international coordination to tackle the crisis is weak.
A study by the ILO among 32 member countries showed that stimulus plans stand on average at 1.7 percent.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) earlier called for stimulus plans in the order of 2 percent of GDP (gross domestic product) in response to the crisis.
The ILO survey also found that the stimulus packages lean heavily toward financial bailouts and tax cuts instead of job creation and social protection and noted that on average, fiscal stimulus packages for the real economy are five times smaller than financial bailout packages.
“Only half of the countries examined have announced labor market initiatives and among those, the resources allocated to these measures are relatively limited,” said Raymond Torres, Director of the ILO’s Institute of Labor Studies.
The report also said that infrastructure programs do not adequately take into account the need to reinforce the existing capacity of businesses and skills supply – so that part of the infrastructure spending may result in higher prices, rather than higher production and jobs; some tax cuts will end in higher savings rather than higher demand, output and jobs; and little is done to help youth and other vulnerable groups.
Jobs in Lebanon
Meantime, thousands of jobs await Filipino professionals in Lebanon.
A group of Lebanese nationals yesterday said their country is in need of Filipino workers to fill the vacancies in the hotel, construction and other sectors.
Kader Al Jadid, Filipino-Lebanese Friendship community president, called on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to allow the deployment of other types of workers to Lebanon.
“Thousands of waiters, carpenters, technicians and other highly skilled workers are needed in Lebanon with the projected surge of foreign tourists,” Al Jadid said.
Al Jadid said Lebanese companies prefer Filipino workers because of their fluency in English and renowned brand of service and hospitality.
“DOLE should not let this opportunity pass for thousands of OFWs affected by the global economic slump,” he said.
But Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said the Philippine government will not resume the deployment of workers to Lebanon until the Lebanese government complies with the new hiring policy.
Roque said the Philippine government already submitted to the government of Lebanon the proposed policy that would ensure the protection of Filipino workers.
“We already submitted our proposal and if they are willing to comply with our conditions, we will resume deployment, but until then the ban stays,” he said.
Among others, Roque said the DOLE is demanding compliance with the $400 minimum monthly salary for Filipino household workers.
Al Jadid, however, urged DOLE to allow the deployment of professional workers while awaiting the approval on the hiring of household workers.
A majority of the Filipino workers currently employed in Lebanon are household workers.
DOLE imposed the deployment ban to Lebanon in 2006 after war erupted between Israeli and Hezbollah forces. Thousands of OFWs were repatriated but many opted to sneak back to Lebanon despite the ban. - By Mayen Jaymalin (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)
Toyota City, Japan Is Beginning To Look A Lot Like Detroit
http://helpthemiddleclass.com/2009/03/23/toyota-city-japan-is-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like-detroit/
The ultimate company town thought it was immune from economic downturns. But that was before the global recession hit and the automaker started slashing jobs.
Reporting from Toyota City, Japan — When times were good and the auto business hummed along like a finely tuned engine here in the Detroit of Japan, this tightknit company town was considered a workers’ utopia.
City officials were the envy of the nation, nursed by a paternal multinational firm that paid generous wages and showered the community with perks such as a top-notch sports stadium, concert hall and art museum — all carrying the Toyota brand name.
That was before the worldwide economic pileup that brought widespread personal wreckage to the hometown of the world’s mightiest automaker.
Unlike in Detroit, where years of steady decline preceded the current financial crisis, Toyota City’s fortunes went from cruise speed to brick wall. Regarded a model of economic prosperity, it endured an unthinkable drop from first in the country to worst in less than nine months.
In this community three hours southwest of Tokyo, it’s a phenomenon known as Toyota Shock.
“Toyota City is hurting,” said Norio Seki, general director of the city’s industrial labor division. “We’re in trouble.”
Last summer, Toyota was just months away from overtaking General Motors as the world’s biggest car company. Jobs were plentiful here in Toyota City, where 80% of workers are employed in the auto industry.
Then Japan slumped into recession. Exports in the world’s second-largest economy plummeted at a record pace, and domestic demand dropped alarmingly.
Mammoth blue-chip firms such as Toyota and Sony weren’t exempt from the financial carnage. Even before announcing last month that it was facing its first annual net loss in 59 years, Toyota had begun an unprecedented production slowdown that called for reduced shifts and 10-day closures at its 12 domestic plants.
It also fired 9,000 contract workers — more than 10% of its 85,000 employees — and warned that more firings could follow, even among once-protected full-time workers.
As a result, Toyota City saw its number of available jobs fall more than 50% between October and December compared with the same period of 2007, officials say.
January brought more bad news: The number of job seekers soared 130% from the same month in 2008, from 1,489 to 2,627. That brought Toyota City unwanted attention as Japan’s most out-of-work town.
“There used to be so many jobs we couldn’t fill them all, but that all dried up overnight,” said Masami Kawajiri, director of a federal job center in Toyota City. “Now our only choice is to do our best for job seekers, one by one. To think about them all at once would be too overwhelming.”
City hall has fared no better: Officials predict a 96.3% drop in the corporate taxes they’ll collect this year, a loss that jeopardizes city services. The Aichi prefecture government, which relies on Toyota for one-fourth of its corporate tax revenue, is projecting a $1-billion shortfall in 2009.
For its part, the automaker can only watch the decline of its home city as its scrambles to climb out of its own financial hole.
From an operating profit of $37 billion last year, Toyota expects a $5-billion loss for the fiscal year ending March 31. The company is also seeking government loans to hold off private investors demanding as much as 50% in interest on the company’s debt.
“We know Toyota City has been hit on the chin, and we feel a responsibility to the community,” said Paul Nolasco, a Toyota spokesman in Tokyo. “But here’s an indication of how cloudy our situation is: We haven’t even come up with a global production and sales plan for this year.
“We usually release that in December, but here it is March and we haven’t done it yet. That’s the biggest indication that we’re still looking for direction.”
Hurting just as much are hundreds of smaller companies here that supply the Toyota colossus with the parts to construct its cars, including mufflers, door parts, windshield wipers and headlights.
In a city where one-third of the 1,400 employers are auto-related, many of the firms say Toyota’s production cuts will cause bankruptcies unless they too can qualify for government loans.
“We have no way to make the situation better — we just have to wait and see what happens with Toyota,” said a manager in a car window parts company who asked not to be named. “People are afraid to talk because they are afraid of Toyota, but we’re all very nervous.”
Toyota City’s downturn baffles residents. After all, this was the home of Japan’s largest company. Financial woes might be a reality in other parts of Japan, but not here.
“This thing took us by surprise,” said one former Toyota employee who declined to give her name. “Who would have ever guessed that recession would come home to roost here? This is a car town and the world needs cars, right?”
Toyota City is a somewhat isolated community on the last stop of a subway line based in the nearby bigger city of Nagoya. Most people here support the hometown company and drive Toyotas.
Not far south of downtown sits the automaker’s massive complex of factories and research and development centers. It carries an air of big-brother mystery, even among locals.
The main gate is guarded, and a visitor who tried to take pictures from the public street was quickly shooed away.
The city has the typical signs of stress: plummeting property sales, empty storefronts and restaurants. But there is another commodity that the town has lost to the recession: foreigners. The representatives from Toyota suppliers and customers from the U.S. and Europe who used to pack downtown’s hotels are gone. Some say occupancy rates have dropped 90%.
For 13 years, Kevin Yuhara has run his tiny restaurant-pub in the heart of downtown, catering to foreigners who did business with Toyota. The U.S. college sports memorabilia, collection of Toyota caps and Polaroids covering the walls capture the atmosphere of drinking and laughter of the mostly American clientele.
Now the place sits empty, except for the occasional Japanese customer.
“For more than a decade, we had some good times here,” said Yuhara, standing next to a flying-pig toy hanging from the ceiling. “But now the party’s over, the town’s major company is hurting, and the foreigners have all gone home.”
At city hall, faces are grim as officials look for answers.
Seki, the industrial labor division head, said Toyota City and Detroit have for years been “sister cities” and share several cultural exchange programs.
Though he has never called his counterpart in Detroit for advice, Seki says there are many questions he’d like to ask. The economic malaise has prompted officials to reconsider the city’s future as a one-company town, he said.
“I’d like to know how they handle unemployment at this scale,” he said of Detroit. “I’d like to know what other industries they are looking into. How can you use the technology used in the auto industry for other kinds of enterprises?”
Seki says the two cities are different in key ways. Unlike most American workers and employers, Toyota City and its citizens have savings they hope will see them through the hardest times.
Toyota City has remade itself before, locals say. During the Depression, the city was a silk production center named Koromo. The stock market crash destroyed the industry, so an ambitious loom maker named Kiichiro Toyoda turned to automobiles instead.
Nobody here expects that another such drastic personality change is in Toyota City’s future. “In the long run, we don’t think the auto industry will fail,” Seki said. “Humans drive cars. It’s what they do.” (FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND RELATED ARTICLES PLEASE CLICK THE LINK BELOW FOR THE LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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Article by John Glionna for the Los Angeles Times
In Toyota City, Japan, the good times rolled . . . away - Los Angeles Times.
Posted by Man In The Middle on Mar 23rd, 2009 and filed under Big Business/Wall Street, Careers, Credit & Debt, Economy, Human Interest, Latest Job News, Latest News, Money, News, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site
Citizen groups support unemployed homeless people in 3 prefectures-JAPAN
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/citizen-groups-support-unemployed-homeless-people-in-3-prefectures
Sunday 22nd March, 06:39 AM JST
TOKYO —
Citizen groups kicked off campaigns Saturday in Saitama, Aichi and Osaka prefectures to throw support behind people faced with the dual hardships of losing their jobs and homes as the Japanese economy sinks deeper into recession.
At the two-day events running through Sunday, doctors, lawyers and representatives from labor unions will give advice on issues concerning health and day-to-day life, the organizers said.
In January, hundreds of homeless people, including laid-off temporary workers, flocked to Tokyo’s Hibiya Park, seeking shelter at a ‘‘temp worker village’’ to stay through an uneasy New Year’s Day.
‘‘The only food I got last night was popcorn at a pachinko parlor,’’ a 37-year-old man from Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, said at the Saitama event.
He was thrown out of his dormitory after losing his job at a car factory last November and has been sleeping at train stations.
Unlike the temp worker village in Tokyo, the organizers are not offering shelter to spend the night at the venues, but they will offer advice on other accommodation, they said.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare estimates that the number of temporary workers who will lose their jobs during the period from last fall through the end of this month could reach more than 150,000.
The citizen groups organized the events after similar ones were held in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, and Kyoto, amid growing concern that more part-time workers will become unemployed at the nearing end of the current business year.
‘‘I’ve been looking for a live-in job, but to no avail. There are few job openings now,’’ said a 43-year-old man who has spent nights in his car since early February after he got fired from a warehouse company in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture.
‘‘Even if I see an opening, the next minute it’s gone,’’ he said.
On Saturday, the events were held at three venues in Omiya, Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo, Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, and Kita Ward in Osaka.
‘‘When I went to a job placement office in Aichi with no identification card at hand, one of the staffers said to me, ‘What are you doing here?’’’ said a 46-year-old man who visited the event in Osaka. He lost his job in January at a car company in Aichi Prefecture. Aichi is the home of Japan’s auto industry, with Toyota Motor Corp. and its affiliated parts suppliers based in the central Japanese prefecture.
‘‘After that, I gave up looking for a job,’’ he said.
Shift to labour-intensive industry -INDIA
http://www.centralchronicle.com/viewnews.asp?articleID=2782
Category » Editorial Posted On Friday, March 20, 2009
There are widespread reports about job loss in various countries, including India thanks to the global meltdown. According to the Union Labour Ministry, around 5 lakh workers have lost their jobs between October and December last year. The figure is based on a study that covered 2,581 units. The affected workers belonged to 20 sectors in 11 States and UTs, including textiles, metals, gems and jewellery, automobile, transportation and mining. For a labour-intensive country like India these reports are indeed intriguing as unemployment and underemployment has been increasing among a large segment of the working population.
The biggest knock has, however, been suffered by the export-driven gems and jewellery units a fall-out of the slump in demand from foreign markets, most of whom are reeling under the impact of the downturn. In fact, the impact of retrenchment has already become evident in Gujarat , which has a large number of diamond units, where even suicides have been reported. But its not just Gujarat, some other States have also been affected by closure due to dwindling orders.
The automobile sector has also suffered badly coinciding with poor demand in the last few months of 2008. However, there are expectations that the economy would improve in the second half of the year and the job loss in this sector may be checked to some extent.
Meanwhile, based on the dwindling export orders, industry inputs have predicted a crore job losses, an estimate that is obviously a cause for worry, specially for the government with elections nearing. The figure, arrived at by the Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) survey, reflects that textiles, garments and handicraft sectors have been found to be the worst-affected. And it is generally believed that these sectors would find the going tough during the current year.
It may be recalled that a disturbing trend of Indias economic performance has been a deceleration in employment growth of 1.92 per cent per annum from 1993-94 to 2006-07 from 2.61 per cent per annum between 1983 and 1993 although growth in terms of GDP was rapid. Clearly, there has been a decline in employment per unit of GDP growth or employment elasticity of 0.28 from 1993-94 to 2006-07.
Applying this elasticity to the likely GDP growth of below 7 per cent in 2008-09 and around 5 per cent in 2009-10 to project the generation of employment provides an average of 7.5-8 million work opportunities this year and 6 million in the next financial year. This is much short of the 10-million opportunities generated during each of the last five years. In other words, there will be around 6 million fewer jobs during 2008-10.
However, the job loss has affected other parts of the world more--a staggering 50 million figure by 2009-end, according to the International Labour Organization. The slowdown has already claimed 3.6 million American jobs. High unemployment rates, specially among young workers, have led to protests in countries as varied as Latvia , Chile , Greece , Bulgaria , and Iceland and contributed to strikes in Britain and France . In emerging economies such as in Eastern Europe , there are fears that growing joblessness might encourage a move away from the free market and pro-western policies while in developed countries unemployment could bolster efforts to protect local industries at the expense of global trade.
Interestingly, in 2008, the 61st round survey of the National Sample Survey Organization, carried out in 2004-05, covering a sample of six lakh people in both rural and urban areas, found that the workforce participation rate (the number of persons working as a percentage of the total population) had increased by 2.85 per cent a year between 2000 and 2005. This is well beyond the current population rate. However, things started changing since early 2008 after the global recession set in.
India has been generating more jobs than any other developing country such as Brazil , Russia and China , as per a study conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD). India generated 11.3 million new jobs annually between 2000 and 2005, which is over 60 per cent more than 7 million jobs created in China every year. The performance looks even more impressive when contrasted with Brazil as the S American giant clocked 2.7 million new jobs annually over the five-year period while Russia added some 700,000 new jobs every year.
It has been estimated that there are 130 million surplus workers in rural India and around 170 million in rural China and the figures are likely to grow as agriculture becomes unremunerative and the farmers debt continues to increase. Incidentally, it may be mentioned that as per a government report around 48.6 per cent farmers in India are presently in debt though the actual figures may be much more.
With increased mechanization, the informal sector has obviously been the greatest contributor to employment generation with nearly 72 per cent of workers in cities and 82 per cent in villages engaged in this sector. But various factors, including competitiveness, economies of scale and lack of financial resources may close down many of these units in the coming years unless the government decides to help them.
Importantly, entrepreneurship development has to be a vital tool for employment generation. There are around 33 million entrepreneurs in India today with 45 per cent belonging to the backward community. According to FICCI estimates, with an enterprise to employment ratio of 1:3, creation of five million new entrepreneurs would result in generating 15 million additional jobs for individuals. Thus, it is necessary to promote entrepreneurship in a big way, specially among the weaker sections in the rural areas through easy access to capital, technology and market distribution channels. Meanwhile, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), which has been extended to all the 615 districts, has been allocated Rs 30,100 crores in the interim Budget. This should provide four crore jobs per annum.
Some economists and planners have voiced the need to reverse the planning strategy and concentrate on the rural sector with industries, which would generate adequate employment and at the same time utilize local skills and technology. Remember, Mahatma Gandhi had advocated strengthening the rural sector to upgrade life and livelihood of the vast majority, which languish there. In recent times, our former President, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, had echoed the same by suggesting the need for PURA (providing urban facilities in rural areas) to boost up the development process.
Clearly, if the demand of the right to work is accorded Constitutional guarantee, which may not happen now, one could see a perceptible change in the strategy towards generating employment. Obviously, this would call for giving more incentives to the sectors that are labour-intensive and also have high employment potential. Agro-industries and rural industries come to our mind immediately, but there are many areas in the manufacturing sector which could too generate sufficient employment and become competitive.
Thus, there is a need to change the outlook of our politicians and planners, who concentrate on GDP growth through labour-reducing techniques without caring for the population, which languishes in poverty and squalor. Indias growth strategy in the coming years would need a drastic reorientation aimed towards labour-intensive sectors, where entrepreneurship development could perform the dual task of employment generation and self-employment. The countrys rural sector offers enormous possibilities and a national dialogue is necessary.
Dhurjati Mukherjee, INFA
Economic crisis to hit women harder than men, ILO report says
http://working.canada.com/resources/story.html?id=9fae403a-43d1-4ffb-b59e-4603c3cbf4c2
Economic crisis to hit women harder than men, ILO report says
In its annual report Global Employment Trends for Women, the Geneva-based employment equity organization said up to 22 million women could join the ranks of the unemployed in 2009.
Becky Rynor, Financial Post
E-mail
Font: * * * * The continuing global economic crisis will likely see more women than men lose their jobs in the year ahead, the International Labour Organization warns.
In its annual report Global Employment Trends for Women, the Geneva-based employment equity organization said up to 22 million women could join the ranks of the unemployed in 2009.
"Gender inequality in the world of work has long been with us, but it is likely that it will be exacerbated by the crisis," said Juan Somavia, director-general of the UN agency whose mandate is to promote "decent work" internationally.
"In times of economic upheaval, women often experience the negative consequences more rapidly and are slower to enjoy the benefits of recovery. And already before the crisis, the majority of working women were in the informal economy with lower earnings and less social protection."
The report indicates that of the three billion people employed around the world in 2008, 1.2 billion were women.
In 2009, it predicts the global unemployment rate for women could reach 7.4 per cent, compared to seven per cent for men.
"Women's lower employment rates, weaker control over property and resources, concentration in informal and vulnerable forms of employment with lower earnings, and less social protection, all place women in a weaker position than men to weather crises", said ILO spokeswoman Jane Hodges.
The report predicts the gender impact of the economic crisis is expected to be worse for women in most parts of the world, but particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The countries where unemployment rates may have less of an impact on women include East Asia, developed economies and the non-European Union which had narrower gender gaps in job opportunities prior to the current economic crisis.
© The Vancouver Sun 2009
Hitachi, Sony freeze wages, to implement work-sharing
http://www.domain-b.com/economy/worldeconomy/20090320_hitachi.html
20 March 2009
Responding to the Japanese government's attempt to help companies retain employees during the current economic turmoil, Hitachi and Sony will freeze wages and introduce work sharing.
Hitachi said it had formed an agreement with its labour union to freeze its regular workers' salaries form April for a period of six months. Hitachi will also implement the Japanese work-sharing style concept under which employees will take one day of unpaid leave during weekdays said company officials.
Hitachi is expected to record a hefty net loss in fiscal 2008 ending March 31, taking this into view the labour union made considerable compromises at the annual spring wage negotiations, inorder to retain workforce in these trying times where companies are on a massive lay offs mood.
Similarly, Sony Corp also has agreed to freeze the monthly wages of its workers starting from April to sustain and improve its revenue, the financial reported daily Nikkei reported .
In a further move, Sony expects to cuts bonuses and salaries of executives. The labour staff's bonuses will be reduced from 6 months to 4 months and for managers the annual salary compensation will be reduced by 10 to 20 per cent and reduction in bonuses to the tune of 35 to 40 per cent bonus, said the paper.
Sony, too is expected to post its first loss in 14 years as the global recession coupled with a strong yen force it to revise its forecasts downwards for fiscal 2008 ending. (See: Sony braces up for recession; cuts jobs, closes factories)
The government too along with employers as well as labour union is forming a tri-party agreement to protect jobs. (See: Japan mulls work-sharing agreements to protect jobs)
Unions fear 50m jobs may be lost
http://www.theage.com.au/national/unions-fear-50m-jobs-may-be-lost-20090319-93fg.html
Daniel Flitton
March 20, 2009
UNIONS fear that unless world leaders agree soon on a plan to stimulate the global economy, the worsening financial contagion will cost well over 50 million jobs worldwide.
ACTU president Sharan Burrow will lead an international trade union delegation to next month's G20 leaders' summit in London, calling for co-ordinated stimulus packages to lift economic growth.
"You've got to look at where you can drive stimulus that will target employment growth, most efficiently, most speedily, and with a capacity to influence not just national economies, but indeed the global economy," she said.
Global unemployment was put at 190 million last year, with an average jobless rate around the world of 6 per cent.
The International Labour Organisation warned earlier this year of a 1.4 per cent jump in global unemployment. But unions now worry that such estimates seem too optimistic.
In a statement to be presented to G20 leaders, unions will argue that the stimulus packages announced since the crisis began would have had twice the impact if they had been better co-ordinated.
They are also pushing to bring the ILO into the G20 leaders' summit to ensure that promoting job growth is a key concern.
Fears about a slide towards protectionist measures will also be at the top of the summit's agenda. Australia has warned that G20 leaders have already lost some credibility on a pledge last year to keep open markets, despite the financial downturn.
But Ms Burrow said governments must support strategic sectors of the economy to help solve the crisis.
"You have to be careful when you're talking about not becoming protectionist — which I support, we live in a global economy — that you're not actually also ruling out sensible measures that would provide for maintaining robust demand," she told The Age.
"Economics 101 says if you maintain demand, if you maintain jobs, then your contribution to a global economy will be more robust than if your own domestic economy is going down the tube."
Ms Burrow, who also heads the International Trade Union Confederation, will take part in a march through London to highlight campaigns against poverty and climate change.
She said the G20 had emerged as a serious body to tackle the crisis and leaders had the opportunity in London to build a new institutions to support the global economy. "If you step back from it, and absent the crisis, it is historic potentially in terms of the emergence of the global architecture," she said.
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For Japanese Workers, Good Times Seem Over
http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/19/japan-labor-sony-markets-equity-wages.html
Chana R. Schoenberger, 03.19.09, 02:54 AM EDT
Downturn is degrading pay, perks of seniority.
BATS Real-Time Market Data by XigniteTOKYO -- The Japanese worker was once king. In his name, companies kept open unprofitable divisions, fought takeovers and paid out generous pensions. But the economic downturn sweeping the world may spell the end of the good times for salaried and hourly employees here.
Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ) announced Thursday that it won't be giving its workers raises this year as it struggles to return to profitability after a projected $2.9 billion loss for the fiscal year that ends March 31. The consumer-electronics giant will give bonuses of four months' wages instead of the traditional six months. And those employees are the lucky ones: In December, Sony unveiled plans to shutter factories and cut 16,000 jobs worldwide. (See "Stringer Tries To Turn Sony's Distress To Advantage")
Yahoo! BuzzJapan is being hit by waves of layoffs, and unemployment is on the upswing as demand falls worldwide for its cars and electronics. (See "Labor Casualties Dim Land Of Rising Sun") A strong yen, which was trading below 96 to the dollar Thursday, hasn't helped matters, making Japanese goods more expensive overseas. Japanese manufacturers are the least optimistic they've ever been about the country's economy, according to a Reuters survey of industrial sentiment for March. And the trade deficit is widening. (See "For Japan, Once Unthinkable Becomes Routine")
This week, floundering tech behemoths Toshiba (other-otc: TOSBF.PK - news - people ), NEC (nasdaq: NIPNY - news - people ) and Hitachi (nyse: HIT - news - people ) (See "Hitachi Injects Old Blood") said they might have to take more drastic measures with their own workforces.
For the first time in four years, Japan's major automakers and electronics companies offered no base wage increases to their labor unions during their annual spring negotiations. Toyota (nyse: TM - news - people ), Honda (nyse: HMC - news - people ) and Nissan (nasdaq: NSANY - news - people ) said Wednesday they would continue to make automatic pay hikes based on seniority, one of the standard features of Japanese corporate life that has helped to keep workers loyal and tied to their employer for life. However, a number of major electronics makers, including Toshiba, Sharp and NEC, are reportedly planning to break with the practice and freeze automatic seniority raises.
Work-sharing programs and reduced pay could be in the offing to prevent layoffs, according to press reports on emergency measures under negotiation between the government and industry that were broadly confirmed Thursday afternoon by Labor Minister Yoichi Masuzoe. Masuzoe said the government is planning 1.5 trillion yen ($15.6 billion) in spending to help the unemployed and preserve jobs.
Mitsubishi Motors (other-otc: MMTOF.PK - news - people ) illustrates the gloomy employment trends as the auto market worldwide shrinks. The company cut some 250 workers in its Illinois plant last year and declined to renew the contracts of 1,100 Thai workers in January. By the end of the fiscal year, which finishes in March, the company will have also let go nearly all the 3,300 contract workers in its Japanese factories by failing to re-sign them. "We have to adjust our production volume with the demand, and we have to decrease the number of inventories," a company spokesman said.
Over 2 million workers anticipated to be laid off in Thailand
http://www.shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2503:over-2-million-workers-anticipated-to-be-laid-off-in-thailand&catid=87:human-rights&Itemid=285
Monday, 09 March 2009 18:19 Hseng Khio Fah Human Rights
According to the Social Security of Thailand, over 2 million workers would be laid off in 2009; most of them migrant workers, said Wilaiwan Sae Tia, Chairwoman of the Thai Labor Solidarity Committee, when she was invited to the 8th Annual Women’s Exchange Get-Together which was held at an undisclosed location on the Thai-Burma border from 5-9 of March 2009.
Wilaiwan Sae Tia
According to the Social Security of Thailand, over 2 million workers would be laid off in 2009; most of them migrant workers, said Wilaiwan Sae Tia, Chairwoman of the Thai Labor Solidarity Committee, when she was invited to the 8th Annual Women’s Exchange Get-Together which was held at an undisclosed location on the Thai-Burma border from 5-9 of March 2009.
Among those workers to be laid off would be workers from electronics, shoe and furniture factories, transportation, and tourism including graduated people.
Most of them would be migrant workers because they don’t have work permits, she said. “Currently, more migrant workers have been laid off than Thai workers.”
Last week, there were over 40 migrant workers from Chiangmai returning to their homeland due to lack of work, difficulty to survive and fear of police arrest.
Many migrant factory workers from Burma are feeling the effects of Thailand’s economic slowdown, Independent Mon News Agency (IMNA) reported yesterday.
In 2008, 93,275 workers had been laid off and this early year, 66, 776 more had been laid off.
However, Thai labor could be impacted as well if Thailand’s economy gets worse because some business owners could move their factories or their businesses to border towns like Maesod and Maesai in order to get cheap labor, she added.
“Most business owners don’t want to hire Thai labor because they are entitled to ask compensation under the law. They will only hire migrant labor so they don’t’ need to pay compensation.”
There are at least 2 million legal and illegal migrant workers in Thailand. But there is no law to protect those migrant workers.
In May, 2008, the Thai Labor Solidarity Committee sent a letter to the Thai government to pass a law for all migrants to have equal rights, to be safe in workplace and to allow them freedom of assembly.
Debbie Stothard from Altsean (Alternative Asean) also commented that if Thailand’s economy is to recover, they will need workers immediately, especially cheap labor.
“If the Thai government deports all migrant workers back to Burma, they may try to go to other countries because they have to survive,” said Jackie Pollock, Coordinator of the Migrant Assistance Program (MAP) “Deportation will only make it difficult for Thailand to get workers.”
Recession hits women in developing countries
http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/598496
The most shattering moment of Bushara's life arrived without warning: "One year ago when I went out to buy breakfast, I saw something written on the wall of our house," she said. "The graffiti told Shiites in the neighbourhood to get out."
Bushara, an Iraqi mother who lived near Abu Ghraib prison, knew there was no time to waste. The death squads were on the march. In bare feet, she fled with her husband and young daughters as the winter winds propelled them from their home. Her story, told to Oxfam International, is typical for Iraqi women, who have suffered loss and destitution since the U.S. overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Nor has the reported lessening of violence since 2007 improved their lives.
According to an Oxfam survey released last week, "despite fragile security gains and a decline in indiscriminate and sectarian violence over the past months, the day-to-day lives of many women in Iraq remain dire." Questioning 1,700 women in five provinces, Oxfam found:
• More than 40 per cent said their security situation was worse than last year; 22 per cent said it was about the same.
• 55 per cent said they had become victims of violence since the invasion.
• More than 30 per cent had family members who died violently.
• About 69 per cent said access to water was worse; 25 per cent had no daily access to drinking water.
• Two-thirds had electricity less than six hours a day, and one-third less than three hours a day.
• 40 per cent said that their children were not attending school.
– Olivia Ward
Raising their placards for equality
In tough economic times, fear about layoffs, bankruptcies and companies shutting their doors threaten to push other issues off the public agenda.Mar 08, 2009 04:30 AM
Comments on this story (6)
Olivia Ward
FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPORTER
In Nepal, destitute parents sell their daughters to traffickers. In Pakistan, marrying off underage daughters relieves a family's financial burden. In parts of Asia and Africa, mothers are forced to choose which of their children they will feed, and which will starve.
Today, International Women's Day, women celebrate the gains made in achieving equal rights and highlight the widespread wrongs that damage the lives of the 3.3 billion females around the world.
But the issue foremost in women's minds is the global recession, which has hit the most vulnerable half of humanity with exceptional force.
Seventy per cent of the poorest people on the planet are women and girls, and even in a wealthy country like Canada they are the majority of the poor.
Although the global downturn began in the financial sector, dominated by men, it is now bearing down on women, most often found in low-wage and part-time jobs.
The recession has plunged from wealthy to developing countries, where women lack safety nets to help them survive.
"As the economy slows, the disaster in the financial institutions is affecting the real economy," says Sylvia Borren, co-chair of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, a coalition of groups in 100 countries.
"What happens is the informal sector suffers first – the cleaning women, gardeners and people who do the household jobs. They are mostly women."
As worldwide consumer confidence fades, says the International Labour Organization, traditionally female service jobs in cafes and retail stores are also disappearing. It predicts that 22 million of an estimated 51 million to lose their jobs this year will be women.
Adding to the problem is a global food crisis that has caused a spike in the price of dietary staples like rice, narrowing the line between malnutrition and starvation.
"The increase in hunger and economic stress is accelerating fast, and that affects women in a number of different ways," says Borren.
Because women earn less than men even in good times – a 16 per cent global pay gap, according to the International Trade Union Confederation – they have less to fall back on when times turn bad.
But those at the bottom are also caught in a vicious circle of poverty and abuse. Women who held normal jobs are forced into the "shadow" economy of prostitution, drug smuggling and other criminal activity. Or they are drawn into the nets of vicious international traffickers.
They're also more at risk of domestic violence, when unemployed husbands and fathers take out their frustration at home.
At the same time, cuts in humanitarian aid budgets mean less money to spend on education, the key factor in lifting women out of poverty. Health care suffers, with devastating effects on pregnant women, HIV/AIDs victims, and those in conflict zones where women are targeted for sexual attack.
Some of the worst affected women are migrants, whose numbers grow as life gets harder in their original countries.
"Women and girls are disproportionately affected by the risks of migration because of their vulnerability to exploitation and violence," says Ndioro Ndiaye of the International Organization for Migration. And, he adds, lack of access to health care can have long-term effects for women and their children.
But as the economic storm clouds gather, the horizon is not entirely dark for women, says Borren.
"If you go to local solutions, you see room for hope," she says.
"To help in the food crisis, there's organizing and investing in microcredit so women can have plots of land. Unions are trying to solve the problem of lack of qualified teachers with fast-track training. Small water and electricity projects can work at the household level."
Along with increased risk there is great opportunity for women in the current crisis, Borren says. "We're concentrating on top-down solutions, which have proved unsustainable, and often stupid. Now it's time to put women at the centre, and work from the bottom up."
Comments on this story are now closed| Commenting Guidelines
Asia to 'lose 7.2 million jobs'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7896878.stm
About 7.2 million people in Asian countries are likely to lose their jobs in 2009 amid the global downturn, a UN report has suggested.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) said that in the worst case scenario the number of newly-unemployed might total 22.3 million.
The UN agency warned that a significant rise in the number of unemployed workers could lead to social unrest.
It urged governments to prioritise the creation of jobs.
However, the report added: "There is very little chance that a sufficient number of new jobs will be created in the region this year to keep up with expected labor force growth."
The ILO scenario forecast a likely rise in the number of jobless people in Asia to 97 million, with the figure jumping to 113 million in the most pessimistic scenario.
Some Asian countries have experienced an economic boom in recent years, but a third of Asia's population still live on about $1 a day.
Government policies
Expanding already agreed public spending projects is a quick, effective way to create and safeguard jobs
Sachiko Yamamato, ILO regional director
The report estimates that about 51 million new jobs will be needed in 2009 and 2010 to absorb the growing labour force.
The organisation also forecast a drop in remittances in 2009.
"For labor-sending countries, this will exacerbate the challenge of mitigating job losses and generating new employment domestically," it said.
The ILO warned Asian countries against protectionist policies, such as refusing to issue work permits to foreign workers.
"Having a more coordinated effort to pull fiscal policies together, to talk about the sequencing and the timing of those fiscal policies would be a big help," said Stephen Pursey, Director for Policy Integration at the ILO.
Sachiko Yamamato, regional director of ILO, said: "Support must come quickly. Expanding already agreed public spending projects is a quick, effective way to create and safeguard jobs."
51 million jobs could disappear worldwide
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2009/febrero/mier25/desempleo.html
The International Labour Organization (ILO) said that approximately 51 million jobs around the world could disappear by the end of the year. This means that 230 million people globally could be unemployed by 2010.
Unemployment brings with it an infinite number of social problems, principally a deterioration of the quality of life and the subsequent consequences. For example, when income is lowered many families face losing their homes.
Facing the rise of this uncontrollable disaster, the ILO proposes the creation of rescue plans for low-income families, many of whom will be obliged to live on less than one dollar a day.
Unemployment and necessity in homes forces many children to leave school to work and support their families, deteriorating, in certain ways, their future prostpects.
The phenomena experienced today, which has caused millions to fall into deep despair, is not only affecting poor or “third world” countries. According to the World Bank (WB), more people are falling into poverty in developing countries. In other words, the employment crisis is global and those who are feeling the worst of it are those who have always felt like the “masters of the world.”
In this respect, IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, pointed out that the principal economies are in a deep depression and maintained that the worst is still to come.
One fact to keep in mind is that as the crisis becomes worse, many countries will start to close their doors to immigrants who, as usually occurs, are seeking to escape from the poverty in their own countries to work in others. (Taken from Rebelión)
Translated by Granma International
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