UN sees slowing growth in worker wages

[December 07, 2012]  GENEVA (AP) -- The U.N. labor office says workers' wages are growing at levels well below those before the global financial crisis, and actually fell in developed countries last year.

The International Labor Organization says global monthly wages grew 1.2 percent in 2011, down from 3 percent in 2007, a year before the global financial crisis that led governments to bail out banks and take over insolvent companies.

But ILO says the continued success of China weighs heavily in the calculation; without it, global real average wages grew by only 0.2 percent in 2011.

In developed countries, average wages fell by 0.5 percent last year. ILO Director-General Guy Ryder told reporters Friday in Geneva the forecast is for average wages to be unchanged in developed economies in 2012.

[Associated Press]

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