Incidence of 'vulnerable employment' is highest in South Asia, including India, with 580 million people in the region falling under the category, says the annual Global Employment Trends report of the International Labour Organisation.
People in the vulnerable employment category in the region are saddled with low wages and little social protection, said the report. In fact, the whole of Asia Pacific region had a comparatively higher level of vulnerable employment cases compared to the rest of the world.
The report released this week, however, said that unemployment rate in India and in South Asia as a whole had "fairly" stabilised. It said "rapid economic growth has resumed" and the region's unemployment rate has been fairly stable, running between 4.3 and 4.5 percent between 2007 and 2010.
"However, the region has the highest rate of vulnerable employment in the world, at 78.5 per cent of total employment in 2009," it said. The report
also sought to caution that unemployment is not the only main labour market challenge in the region as employment growth also "did not automatically equate to positive labour market trends".