The International Labour Organisation (ILO) on Friday in Abuja said that more than 200 million people were unemployed worldwide.

This is contained in a statement to mark 2011 World Day of Social Justice and issued by Mr Juan Somavia, the Director-General of the ILO.

Somavia said this figure included nearly 80 million youths while the number of workers in vulnerable employment stood at 1.5 billion with 630 million working under poor living conditions with their families. He added that global inequalities were also growing as the crisis had cut wage growth into half.

The ILO boss said this had reduced social mobility through work and trapped more and more people in low-paid jobs with income gaps growing in some countries.

Somavia said in order to achieve a fair globalisation, there should be a new vision of society, economy, with a balanced approach to the role of state, markets and society. According to him, there should be a clear understanding of the possibilities and limitations of individual actions in that framework.

He said action must go beyond simply recovering growth and move toward a new era of social justice.

“It is time to build a new era of social justice on a foundation of decent work, ‘’he added.