Young hit hardest as global jobless rate continues to rise

The world could face years of jobless economic recovery, with young people set to be hit the hardest as global unemployment continues to rise this year, the International Labour Organisation said in a report.

The United Nations agency highlighted a "potentially dangerous gap between profits and people", forecasting that millions more people will join the ranks of the unemployed as companies choose to increase payouts to shareholders rather than invest their burgeoning profits in new workers.

The ILO's Global Employment Trends report forecasts that world unemployment will rise to 6.1 per cent this year from 6 per cent last year and will remain well above its pre-crisis rate of 5.5 per cent for several years.

It puts the youth unemployment rate at 13.1 per cent, more than double that for the whole workforce and almost three times the adult rate of 4.6 per cent - putting the ratio of youth to adult unemployment at a record.

The World Economic Forum kicks off in the Swiss town of Davos today with a focus on rising inequality.

Guy Ryder, the ILO's director-general, also highlighted rising inequality as wages fail to pick up, long-term unemployment problems intensify and progress stalls on cutting working poverty.