2009 Labour Overview. Latin America and the Caribbean.

The 2009 Labour Overview is special because it recounts the entire scenario of the global crisis and its effect on employment in our region. It also contains some forecasts on what may occur this year in the labour market.

The financial crisis that occurred in developed nations and that quickly spread around the world clearly affected the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean in 2009. Nevertheless, although the crisis slowed the pace of GDP growth, it did not trigger a recession in the region. In fact, there have been signs of recovery in many countries since mid-2009.

The end of the five-year economic growth cycle caused setbacks in labour market indicators in most of the countries of the region. Specifically, unemployment again increased in 2009.

Nevertheless, the costs of the crisis in terms of decent work have been less than expected for the region as a whole, at least to the third quarter of 2009.Currently, the region faces the challenge of achieving a recovery that also generates employment.

The 2009 Labour Overview reviews some policies applied by the countries to respond to the crisis and proposes the need to maintain this effort and to implement the recommendations of the ILO Global Jobs Pact, adopted in June 2009 by representatives of governments, employers and workers.