Oslo Conference Calls for Action to Avoid Jobless ‘Lost Generation’

Spotlight on human costs of around 210 million unemployed across the world

Solutions seen in job-focused policy response, job training, social protection

Global crisis not over until unemployment starts falling

The heads of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Labour Organization (ILO), along with other leaders, called September 13 for a broad international commitment to a jobs-focused policy response to the global economic downturn.

At a historic conference in Oslo—hosted by Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg of Norway and co-sponsored by the IMF and ILO—leaders from government, labor, business, and academia met to tackle the sharp increase in unemployment and underemployment since the global financial crisis.

“The crisis of unemployment is the worst one facing the world right now,” said Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

“The rules of the game have changed,” Strauss-Kahn said in his opening remarks. “The global economy after the crisis is not the same as before the crisis. So, in a nutshell, we need to think differently. Why? Because the future of millions of people is at stake. Because the future of our world—prosperity and peace—is at stake.”

Fixing globalization

“We need to humanize this global economy,” Prime Minister George Papandreou of Greece told a news conference.

The conference brought together senior government leaders, including President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia. A large delegation of labor leaders was led by International Trade Union Confederation General Secretary Sharan Burrow. Speakers also included Finance Minister Christine Lagarde of France and U.K. Secretary of State for Labor Iain Duncan Smith.

Conference co-sponsored by IMF, ILO brought together leaders from government, labor, business, academia to tackle jump in unemployment (photo: Kote Rodrigo/EFE)

Strauss-Kahn said he hoped the conference would identify a new way to think about what the planet can do, together, to build a better world. “If successful, maybe in four or five years time, we will be able to say "I was in Oslo" where it all began.”

Lagarde said the world needed a “job-charged” recovery that continued coordination between major economies through the Group of Twenty.

Sirleaf warned of the destabilizing effects of large-scale unemployment in fragile developing countries, saying social cohesion in Liberia could be damaged.

“When growth is not fair, it becomes unsustainable,” said ILO...