ABC Radio Australia
Women in Asia are bearing the brunt of the region's economic downturn where funding on social protection mechanisms often falls short.
This has raised fears of social tensions across the region, as unemployment rises.
Presenter: Ron Corben
Speakers: Lucia Victor Jayaseelan is the executive coordinator for the committee for Asian Women; Gyorgy Sziraczki, senior ILO economist
CORBEN: Asia's export model has been the foundation for economic growth over recent decades, luring millions of men and women from rural areas to work in industries producing goods ranging from garments to vehicles and electronics destined for markets, especially in the United States and Europe.
But with the global recession as export orders have plummeted all that has changed. Export industries have cut back working hours and pay, with millions of men and women forecast to be laid off throughout the region.
Lucia Victor Jayaseelan is the executive coordinator for the committee for Asian Women says the crisis has had a profound impact on women workers.
VICTOR JAYASEELAN: The crisis has hit export oriented industries, like the manufacturing sector -- the garment industry, the hotel and service industry, the tourist industry - these are all heavily labour intensive and heavily women - 80 per cent are women and women workers. They are also migrant workers many of them. So if the market has dwindled or reduced or gone away then it will be the women that will suffer.
CORBEN: Throughout the region many women who migrated from rural areas across the region were often low skilled but whose employment played a key place in boosting family incomes and education chances for their children. In Cambodia, investment targeted the garment and textiles industry. Just over 70 per cent of women are in the labour force. Victor Jayaseelan says in garment factories in Cambodia women were desperate to hold onto their jobs.
VICTOR JAYASEELAN: They were working without pay because they couldn't go home and they were so used to working and hoping and believing that the industries, the manufacturers, the factories would be giving them some money at some point. Three months - no salary. Which meant they had to live, they had to pay for their rent, school for their children remit money back to the rural areas - all that went.
CORBEN: The United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) in its latest assessment has forecast a rise of up to 26 million people unemployed across Asia Pacific in 2009. Such an increase would lift the total unemployed in the region to more than 110 million. The numbers of people occupied in "vulnerable" employment - offering almost now security - could increase by 52 million to more than one billion people. Gyorgy Sziraczki, is a senior ILO economist.
SZIRACZKI: Many people in the region cannot afford to remain unemployed so probably an ever bigger challenge is what's happening to poverty, vulnerability, and the expansion of the informal sector.
CORBEN: What then do you see as the implications for the labour markets within these urban areas?
SZIRACZKI: Certainly pressure on wages is growing in the urban areas. If people stayed there and don't go back (to rural areas) - more people looking for a job. That's happening throughout the region. The other area where we see a new trend is the expansion of the urban informal sector. People are losing their jobs in formal enterprises like export oriented garment industry and electronics. If they don't go back to the countryside the other options in the informal sector job or very risky jobs - some of them might end up in the entertainment sector which might involve the spread of AIDS and others if the social safety net is not there.
CORBEN: Governments in Asia have traditionally spent a smaller proportion of national output on social protection programs than other regions, including Africa. Sziraczki warns of rising social tensions due to a lack of social support.
SZIRACZKI: If the social protection system is not there and the crisis is a long, long period and even if the economy is coming back, labour market recovery takes a much longer time. So if the crisis is really long there is danger of really social tensions might rise in the future because of the lack of social protection and safety nets and the long term economic recession and all the social implications.
This has raised fears of social tensions across the region, as unemployment rises.
Presenter: Ron Corben
Speakers: Lucia Victor Jayaseelan is the executive coordinator for the committee for Asian Women; Gyorgy Sziraczki, senior ILO economist
CORBEN: Asia's export model has been the foundation for economic growth over recent decades, luring millions of men and women from rural areas to work in industries producing goods ranging from garments to vehicles and electronics destined for markets, especially in the United States and Europe.
But with the global recession as export orders have plummeted all that has changed. Export industries have cut back working hours and pay, with millions of men and women forecast to be laid off throughout the region.
Lucia Victor Jayaseelan is the executive coordinator for the committee for Asian Women says the crisis has had a profound impact on women workers.
VICTOR JAYASEELAN: The crisis has hit export oriented industries, like the manufacturing sector -- the garment industry, the hotel and service industry, the tourist industry - these are all heavily labour intensive and heavily women - 80 per cent are women and women workers. They are also migrant workers many of them. So if the market has dwindled or reduced or gone away then it will be the women that will suffer.
CORBEN: Throughout the region many women who migrated from rural areas across the region were often low skilled but whose employment played a key place in boosting family incomes and education chances for their children. In Cambodia, investment targeted the garment and textiles industry. Just over 70 per cent of women are in the labour force. Victor Jayaseelan says in garment factories in Cambodia women were desperate to hold onto their jobs.
VICTOR JAYASEELAN: They were working without pay because they couldn't go home and they were so used to working and hoping and believing that the industries, the manufacturers, the factories would be giving them some money at some point. Three months - no salary. Which meant they had to live, they had to pay for their rent, school for their children remit money back to the rural areas - all that went.
CORBEN: The United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) in its latest assessment has forecast a rise of up to 26 million people unemployed across Asia Pacific in 2009. Such an increase would lift the total unemployed in the region to more than 110 million. The numbers of people occupied in "vulnerable" employment - offering almost now security - could increase by 52 million to more than one billion people. Gyorgy Sziraczki, is a senior ILO economist.
SZIRACZKI: Many people in the region cannot afford to remain unemployed so probably an ever bigger challenge is what's happening to poverty, vulnerability, and the expansion of the informal sector.
CORBEN: What then do you see as the implications for the labour markets within these urban areas?
SZIRACZKI: Certainly pressure on wages is growing in the urban areas. If people stayed there and don't go back (to rural areas) - more people looking for a job. That's happening throughout the region. The other area where we see a new trend is the expansion of the urban informal sector. People are losing their jobs in formal enterprises like export oriented garment industry and electronics. If they don't go back to the countryside the other options in the informal sector job or very risky jobs - some of them might end up in the entertainment sector which might involve the spread of AIDS and others if the social safety net is not there.
CORBEN: Governments in Asia have traditionally spent a smaller proportion of national output on social protection programs than other regions, including Africa. Sziraczki warns of rising social tensions due to a lack of social support.
SZIRACZKI: If the social protection system is not there and the crisis is a long, long period and even if the economy is coming back, labour market recovery takes a much longer time. So if the crisis is really long there is danger of really social tensions might rise in the future because of the lack of social protection and safety nets and the long term economic recession and all the social implications.
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