Poverty increasing in developed countries, according to report
Labour watchdog says a third of extreme and moderate poor in developing countries are employed, but they are often unpaid and lack social protection
Quality jobs that provide social protection must play a central role to end poverty, said the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on Wednesday, in its most recent World Employment and Social Outlook Trends 2016 report.
Although extreme poverty rates have been cut by more than half since 1990, too many people remain poor across the world, according to the ILO, and that's despite being employed.
Currently, almost one third of the extreme and moderate poor in emerging and developing countries actually have a job. However, these jobs often make the workers vulnerable - they are sometimes unpaid, concentrated in low-skilled occupations and absent of social protection, reported the ILO.
"It's extremely important to improve the job quality that people do… There are so many people working in precarious employment situations, also in developed countries," Raymond Torres, ILO Special Advisor on Social and Economic Issues says.
It is estimated that nearly 2 billion people live on less than US$3.10 per day – that's over 36 per cent of the emerging and developing world. And although the poverty rate overall has been reduced globally, notably in China and much of Latin America, it still remains high in Africa and parts of Asia, said the ILO.