Asia suffered most severely from the bursting ICT bubble, which cut exports to the industrialized countries. Child labour and human trafficking remain major issues for the Asian region as a whole. South-East Asia faced the 2001 downturn just as it was beginning to recover from the 1997-98 financial crisis, posting a rise in unemployed from 6 per cent in 2000 to 6.8 per cent in 2001, with a slight fall to 6.5 per cent projected for 2002. Individual South-East Asian countries varied considerably. Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, which depend heavily on trade, suffered from exposure to global economic trends. In contrast, Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam sustained high growth rates, due to improved access to markets in industrial economies or improved performance in the agriculture sector.
East Asia also recorded significantly lower output growth and deteriorating employment during the two-year period with joblessness rising from 3.2 per cent in 2000 to 3.6 per cent in 2001 and 4 per cent in 2002. While the official figure covering the unemployment rate in urban areas of China was 3.6 per cent in 2001, recent estimates suggest that it might be as high as 7.5 per cent today as a result of high underemployment in the agricultural sector and of ending the practice of keeping redundant workers in the public enterprises' employment roles, often known as labour hoarding.
East Asia also recorded significantly lower output growth and deteriorating employment during the two-year period with joblessness rising from 3.2 per cent in 2000 to 3.6 per cent in 2001 and 4 per cent in 2002. While the official figure covering the unemployment rate in urban areas of China was 3.6 per cent in 2001, recent estimates suggest that it might be as high as 7.5 per cent today as a result of high underemployment in the agricultural sector and of ending the practice of keeping redundant workers in the public enterprises' employment roles, often known as labour hoarding.