PARIS — High joblessness across most of the developed world results mostly from the tepid pace of recovery, rather than increased structural unemployment, a finding that has important implications for policy, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a report on Wednesday.
The developed world "is still recording a jobs deficit," the report said, noting that almost 45 million people are without work – 12.1 million more than before the global financial crisis hit almost six years ago.
"Weak aggregate demand accounts for a significant part of the persistence of high unemployment," the report said, noting that the number of openings per unemployed jobseeker remained low by historical standards.
Joblessness that results from a downturn in the business cycle is called cyclical unemployment. The report also noted evidence of another type, structural unemployment, which occurs, for example, when workers cannot get jobs because they lack the skills that are in demand. Policy makers are particularly concerned about preventing structural unemployment from becoming firmly rooted, to avoid the creation of a "lost generation" of workers.
The authors of the report argue that "the dominant cyclical component in the unemployment rates observed in many O.E.C.D. countries suggests that promoting aggregate demand and job creation remains a key policy priority."
Not acting, it warned, creates a "growing risk that for the many people who have accumulated long jobless spells, discouragement and loss of human capital make their reintegration more difficult, that is, their unemployment risks becoming structural in nature."
Governments could help, they suggested, by focusing job training and creation on the long-term unemployed who are most at risk of giving up on work.
Policy makers and officials should understand that under the current conditions, "austerity policies and supply-side interventions are failing to boost growth and employment," John Evans, general secretary of the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the O.E.C.D., an international labor lobbying group, said in a statement.
"Governments should increase public investment in infrastructure to support aggregate demand, and boost employment in the short-term while mitigating the adverse consequences of long-term unemployment," he said, adding that "raising the minimum wage and increasing the share of wages through collective bargaining would definitely help support demand, and in the current situation also help job creation."
Based in Paris, the O.E.C.D. serves as a sort of think-tank and discussion forum for the world's developed economies. Its 34 members include the United States, Japan, and all 28 European Union nations, but not rising economic giants like China and India.
While member nations are in no way bound by the organization's recommendations, the report comes at a particularly sensitive time for officials in Europe, who are debating whether their tight-budget approach has gone too far.
Mario Draghi, the European Central Bank president, warned recently that the eurozone's current policy approach, in which monetary stimulus is expected to restore growth, is insufficient and called for governments to use fiscal stimulus to help carry the burden.
Recent data shows that the eurozone economy stopped growing in the second quarter and indicates that the 18-member currency bloc is slipping from ultralow inflation toward outright deflation. Extended weakness in Europe poses significant risks for the global economy and for the region's trading partners, including the United States.
On the positive side, the organization noted that a "small but welcome decline in unemployment has been recorded" recently, with the average jobless rate in O.E.C.D. countries falling to 7.4 percent in May from around 8 percent, where it had been stagnating for several years. That is down from the peak of 8.5 percent in October 2009. The organization predicted "modest declines" in the jobless rate through the end of 2015.
The report also noted that the crisis has weighed on many of those who managed to keep their jobs, as inflation-adjusted wages have grown slowly or not at all, because the large number of unemployed has kept the supply of labor so plentiful.
This has been a boon to some countries, particularly in the eurozone, the report noted, by promoting external competitiveness. But over all, it noted, weak growth or declines in real wages risk increasing the number of working poor.
It also warned of the growing use of temporary workers in developed countries, saying the practice "is damaging to individuals and the economy." While companies and employees can benefit from the flexibility of "non-regular" work forces, such contracts leave workers with few protections and, it noted, "firms tend to invest less in non-regular workers, which in turn may depress their productivity and human capital development."
In July, America's jobless rate stood at 6.2 percent, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was well behind Japan's rate of 3.8 percent, far better than the eurozone average of 11.5 percent, and light years ahead of the depression-level situation in individual member countries like Greece and Spain, where a quarter or more of the population is unemployed.
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