More Than 200 Million People Were Jobless in 2013, World Report Says

GENEVA (TheBlaze/AP) -- The number of unemployed people around the world rose above 200 million last year as job opportunities failed to grow at the same pace as the global workforce, according to a new report from the International Labor Organization.

A protester wears a T-shirt reading "public health care system" and "no to financial cuts" during a demonstration against the government's plans to partially privatize the regional health care system in Madrid, Spain, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2014 (AP)

The ILO said Monday that an estimated 201.8 million people were unemployed in 2013.

This is up 5 million from the year before. The increases were seen mostly in the East Asia and South Asia regions, the report noted. These two regions were followed closely by Europe.

"If current trends continue, global unemployment is set to worsen further, albeit gradually, reaching more than 215 million jobseekers by 2018," the organization said. "The global unemployment rate would remain broadly constant during the next five years, at half a percentage point higher than before the crisis."

Further, the report claimed an additional 23 million workers became discouraged and stopped looking for work, dropping out of the labor market altogether.

"The global labor market situation remains uneven and fragile." Raymond Torres, director of the ILO Research Department, said of the report. "True, there are encouraging signs of economic recovery in those advanced economies most affected by the global financial crisis which erupted in 2008 … [but] the report finds that those economic improvements will not be sufficient to absorb the major labor market imbalances that built up in recent years."

The agency puts last year's global unemployment rate at 6 percent, unchanged from 2012. It says it expects little improvement this year, projecting that the jobless rate will edge up to 6.1 percent and the number of unemployed will rise another 4.2 million.

The United Nations said in a separate report that the "global employment situation remains dire."

The world economy had "subdued growth" of a mere 2.1 percent in 2013, the U.N. report claimed.

Still, if it's any consolation, the same report estimated a gain of 3 percent growth in 2014, which should push the world economy to 3.3 percent in 2015.

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