The stagnation in world economy made a negative impact on the labor market in Latin America and the Caribbean. According to the “2013 Labour Overview – Latin America and the Caribbean”, compiled by the International Labour Organization (ILO), released on Tuesday (Dec. 17), in order to hold down the unemployment rate of the last decade, 43.5 million new jobs will have to be created in the next ten years.

“The area is at risk of missing a chance of making progress by creating more and better jobs. The moment we are in is favorable, yet challenging,” the document reads.

According to data from the ILO, the evolution that took place throughout the previous years was brought to a halt. In spite of the lowest urban unemployment rate in the region – 6.3%, in 2013 – no reduction was reported in the number of informal jobs, productivity rose at a pace below the world average, and unemployment among young people was also seen to be on the rise: from 2012 to 2013, it went from 14.2% to 14.5%.

If the local economies succeed in growing at an average of 3.4% per year (as foreseen by the International Monetary Fund, IMF, for 2014), informal work in these countries will drop from 47.7% to 42.8%. In 2013, Latin America and the Caribbean increased 3.1%, 0.5 percentage points below the world average, 3.6%, according to data from the IMF.

In case the region does not reinvigorate their economy, 14.8 million people are expected to become jobless in 2014. Among those who work, at least 130 million are informal workers. The ILO estimates that three out of every ten Latin American workers are not assisted by any sort of social protection.

In 2013, the average salary rose less this time, a mere 1%, against the 2.6% increase reported last year. The same happened to the minimum wage: 6.9% in 2013, and 2.6% in 2013.

As regards unemployment rates, the worst-performing countries this year were Jamaica (15.4%), Colombia (11.1%). Panama (4.7%), Ecuador (4.7%) and Brazil (5.6%) showed the lowest rises.

In the ILO’s view, in spite of the role of the economic growth in improving the amount and the quality of the jobs, it is not enough. The Organization recommends that the countries adopt specific policies to address labor issues, such as the support of labor legislation, social dialogue, policies with an active role in the labor market, employee retention, as well as better education and professional training.

On the report, the ILO draws up a panorama of the region’s economy over the last twenty years. In the 1990’s, it was struck by fluctuations, instability and the increase in unemployment. The following decade, however, was marked by significant improvements – with a hiatus between 2008 and 2009, due to the international crisis and the subsequent halt in Europe’s economy.