Kathmandu, August 31 :

Despite the robust economic growth, South Asia is facing a growing socio-economic disconnect, as economic growth and improved productivity fail to translate adequately into job creation and better wages, warns a report by the International Labour Organisation.

The ILO’s report on ‘Labour and Social Trends in South Asia and the Pacific 2006: Progress towards Decent Work’ says that despite ‘solid’ economic growth since 2000 nowhere in South Asia has job creation been strong enough to fully absorb new labour market entrants.

Thus, employment in South Asia averages five per cent, compared to the Asia Pacific region’s average of 4.6 per cent. Young women and men (those aged 15-24) are bearing the brunt, with 11.3 per cent unemployment in this age group.

In Bangladesh and Sri Lanka young people are four times as likely to be unemployed as older workers, in India three times and in the rest of the region at least twice. Young women have higher unemployment rates than their male counterparts, states the report.

Unemployment will become more acute in the next decade, the report says, because the South Asian labour force is expected to grow by around 2.1 per cent a year, adding

more than 14 million people to the labour market between today and 2015.

The most rapid increase will be in countries with the greatest number of working poor and the largest informal economies such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan, and slowest in Sri Lanka.

The problem of the working poor remains serious in South Asia, as the number of such a group of people still stands at a staggering 202 million. This means that among those in employment, 34.2 per cent live in households below $1 per person per day.