According to the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) new World Employment and Social Outlook 2015 (WESO) report, countries with available data (covering 84 per cent of the global workforce), three quarters of workers are employed on temporary or short-term contracts, in informal jobs often without any contract, under own-account arrangements or in unpaid family jobs. Over 60 per cent of all workers lack any kind of employment contract, with most of them engaged in own-account or contributing family work in the developing world. Even among wage and salaried workers, less than half (42 per cent) are working on a permanent contract. “The shift we’re seeing from the traditional employment relationship to more non-standard forms of employment is in many cases associated with the rise in inequality and poverty rates in many countries,” said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder. “The way forward is to ensure that policies take into consideration the evolution of how we work today. This means stimulating investment opportunities to boost job creation and productivity, while ensuring adequate income security to all types of workers, not just those on stable contracts,” added Ryder.
