Monthly Briefing on the World Economic Situation and Prospects, No. 65

• Global employment remains a challenge
• ?United States Federal Reserve faces challenges in?adjusting its monetary policy
• Financial markets in emerging economies stabilized

The preliminary estimates for employment and unemployment,?prepared by the International Labour Organization (ILO), show?that labour markets have been affected by the slow recovery in?2013. Globally, employment grew by 1.4 per cent in 2013?similar to the 2012 expansion, but stubbornly slower than the growth?of pre-crisis years. As a result, the global jobs gap (measuring the?number of current jobs lost in comparison with the pre-crisis trend)?widened further to 62 million in 2013. Across regions, employment?growth slowed down in all except South Asia and North Africa. The?2013 global unemployment rate of 6 per cent is unchanged when?compared with 2012. In absolute terms, 4.9 million new individuals joined the cohort of unemployed people in 2013.