The Human Cost of Recessions: Assessing It, Reducing It

Abstract

Recessions leave scars on the labor market; the Great Recession of 2007–09 has left gaping wounds. Over 200 million people across the globe are estimated to be unemployed at present. Among countries with unemployment data in the IMF’s World Economic Outlook (WEO) database, there has been an increase of over 20 million unemployed people since 2007. The ILO estimates that globally the increase is over 30 million.