In the body's Asia-Pacific Labor Market Update for December 2013, it was revealed that some economies are fragile at the present time, while others are showing signs of resilience.
"Employment trends are slowing in some key markets, and progress on enhancing job quality has been feeble," said the ILO, which also noted young people are finding it particularly challenging to gain employment.
Job growth in the Philippines was found to have accelerated to 1.7 per cent in July but the ILO noted that it was unable to keep pace with even higher labor force growth. Typhoon Haiyan, which killed 6,000 people in November, had a major impact on the economy of the Philippines, with the country still recovering from the after-effects of the natural disaster.
The ILO found that an estimated 5.9 million workers have had their livelihoods impacted temporarily or permanently as a result of the typhoon. The body pointed out that this is more than those who were affected by Southwest Monsoon, Typhoon Bopha, Tropical Storm Trami and the Bohol Earthquake in total.
Job quality in much of the Asia-Pacific region remains an issue as well, with high shares of own-account and contributing family workers. The ILO said: "In countries with recent, comparable data, there was little progress in reducing these types of precarious jobs."
There were some positive stories among the data, however, as the ILO's statistics indicated that employment in Malaysia has grown by ten per cent - an increase of 1.3 million jobs - which the organization explained was spurred by strong domestic demand, as well as a significant rise in the labor force.
"In Sri Lanka, employment increased by a robust 6.8 per cent, although with nearly half of the expansion concentrated in agriculture," said the ILO.
One company to be creating jobs in the Asia-Pacific region is General Motors, which recently confirmed plans to relocate its international operations from Shanghai to Singapore.
Posted by Sarah Dixon
source:::ILO
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