``Job Losses to Hit 24 Million Next Year``

The International Labor Organization (ILO) forecasted that 24 million job opportunities - more than the population of Texas, or Australia - will disappear by the end of 2002 because of the global economic slowdown.

According to the BBC, the projection comes from the ILO`s report on Nov. 1st, and its figure for the losses included actual and prospective positions that would have been eliminated worldwide.

The report also said that the airline industry, in particular, will take years to recover after more than 200,000 of its 4 million global employees lost their jobs after 9.11 terrorist attack.

``The situation has been fuelled by fear and insecurity since the attack, and economic growth has to be revived in Asia and developing countries to reverse the trend.`` the ILO said.

The ILO report warned, ``The 1.7 percent average annual growth of the world`s workforce over the past decade had outstripped the 1.4 percent annual rise in global employment. In recent years the global economy has created about 40 million jobs a year for the 48 million annual new entrants to the labor force.``

The ILO predicted that, while over 97 percent of new job seekers in the next decade will come from developing countries, with 65 percent of them in Asia, the labor force of the industrialized countries would shrink except the U.S.

phark@donga.com