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Global unemployment remained steady last year at an historical low of 5%, where it is set to stay in 2025, the International Labour Organization said in a report on Thursday.
However, the Geneva-based body said that a global economic slowdown from 3.3% to around 3.2% last year, and a gradual deceleration over the medium term, will limit job creation.
“The global economy continues to expand at a moderate rate, but it is projected to gradually lose steam, preventing a stronger and more durable labour market recovery,” the ILO flagship report on global employment and social trends said.
The current global unemployment rate of 5% is the lowest in an ILO data series going back to 1991 and is projected to tick lower again in 2026 to 4.9%, the ILO said.
However, some countries and groups are failing to benefit from the positive trend, with young people facing a significantly higher unemployment rate of 12.6%, the report said.
While some European countries have seen unemployment fall in recent years, countries such as South Africa reported stubbornly high levels above 30% in 2024, it said.
ILO Director-General Gilbert Houngbo, a former Prime Minister of Togo, called for bold action to help address barriers to a thriving labour market.
“The world must embrace new approaches to social justice that generate decent work,” he said in the report’s preface.
The 84-page report also includes recommendations to boost job creation through investment in education plus a proposal for new private funds from migrants’ remittances sent back home to boost development in poorer countries.
(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Miranda Murray and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
