By Victor Ahiuma-Young

LAGOS—INTERNATIONAL Labour Organisation, ILO, has told Nigeria and other countries grappling with economic recession that decent work was key to reducing poverty, inequality and slow economic growth.

In statements to the International Monetary and Financial Committee and the World Bank Development Committee in Washington, ILO noted that developments in the labour market were likely to take a turn for the worse, considering slow economic growth in many countries of the world.

ILO Director-General, Mr. Guy Ryder, said eight years on, the world economy had not fully recovered from the global financial crisis, adding that there was a high risk that it would remain stuck in a slow growth trap unless urgent, coordinated action was taken to boost growth and make it more inclusive.

He said: “There are over 70 million women and men not in work today who would have had a job if pre-crisis growth had resumed.

‘’With the latest downward revisions in growth prospects, jobs gap could rise to over 80 million by 2020. Global real wage growth dropped sharply during the crisis, recovered in 2010 but has since decelerated.

‘’Increasing decent work opportunities and improving wages are key to breaking out of the slow growth trap and rekindling a virtuous circle of increased investment, rising productivity and sustainable enterprise and wage and consumption growth.”