Global unemployment ‘stable’ in 2026, but decent jobs lacking

THE global unemployment rate is expected to hold steady in 2026, the United Nations said Wednesday, but cautioned the labour market's seeming stability belies a dire shortage of decent jobs.

- AFP

THE global unemployment rate was estimated at 4.9 percent last year and the year before.

(I AFP)

The UN's International Labour Organization said the global economy and labour market appeared to have weathered recent economic shocks better than expected.

But the ILO warned that efforts to improve global job quality had stagnated, leaving hundreds of millions of workers wallowing in poverty, even as trade uncertainty risked cutting into workers wages. The global unemployment rate was estimated at 4.9 percent last year and the year before, and is now projected to remain at a similar level until 2027, a report from the UN labour agency said.

That amounts to 186 million people out of work this year, it said.