Global crisis
There is no denying that the global economic crisis has hit the whole world hard. The USA, being a leading country controlling world economy, has been affected severely by the crisis, which has given birth to global joblessness. Every day we find the news of many organisations limiting their activities, leading to job loss.
Like many developed countries African countries are glaring examples of this crisis. Since September 2008, the global demand for natural resources dropped and prices of commodities like copper and cobalt plummeted to all-time lows. While copper lost over 50 percent of its value, cobalt -- a mineral that is predominantly used to make rechargeable batteries and alloys -- fell from a peak price of 52 dollars a pound in March 2008 to approximately 18 dollars nine months later.
As a result, over half the 75 copper and cobalt mining companies operating in the Katanga province were forced to either fully suspend or slow down their production activities.
Subsequently, 300,000 people lost their jobs and 60,000 more mine workers face retrenchment in the months to come. In Australia as many as 1,056 permanent and contract workers at the mine companies have been retrenched. This is only the scenario of some particular organisations. Though global financial crisis has not hit Bangladesh hard, its effect on our workforce working abroad has been alarming. Many countries have sent back a good number of workers, making them temporarily or permanently jobless. On top of that, manpower importing countries, namely Malaysia and Middle Eastern countries, have stopped issuing work permit to the job seekers due to the economic recession.
This has a tremendous impact on people's lives, as many people do not earn more than 100 dollars a month. Food prices, including cooking oil and other essential commodities, have increased. Surprisingly, more and more beggars and children, even in developed countries, are seen on the streets, compared to a few months ago. In the USA more and more employees are losing their jobs and becoming homeless.
To boost up the economic slow down the giant economies including the USA and China are, however, giving stimulus packages to their economy with no significant advancement yet.
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