❖ The International Labour Organization (ILO) expects a global unemployment rate of 4.9% in 2024.

❖ It is originally forecasting unemployment would rise to 5.2% this year from five percent in 2023.

❖ The Geneva-based UN agency forecasts that the rate will stay at 4.9% in 2025.

❖ 183 million people meet the definition of unemployed but the number of people without a job who wanted to work stood at 402 million.

❖ Women in low-income countries were especially hard-hit, with 22.8% who wanted a job not in work, compared with 15.3 percent for men.

❖ For high-income countries, the rate stood at 9.7% for women and 7.3% for men. ❖ 45.6% of women of working age were employed in 2024.

❖ For men, the figure was 69.2%.