HONG KONG AP Social instability will worsen unless governments in battered Asian nations provide long-term social safety nets for the unemployed an official of the International Labor Organization said Tuesday. Unless workers who have been made jobless by the regional financial crisis have access to minimal income in the form of unemployment insurance economic recovery ``is unlikely to return any time soon even under the most optimistic scenario.'' ``The single biggest element in this crisis is the dramatic rise in unemployment'' Eddy Lee director of the ILO's Cross-Departmental Analyses and Reports Team told reporters. Lee prepared the latest ILO report which surveys the struggling economies of Indonesia South Korea and Thailand. The ILO monitors labor issues for the United Nations. The absence of unemployment benefits ``has inflicted unnecessary suffering and hardship'' which can only be remedied with a ``new and better social contract'' said the report released Tuesday. As a long-term social safety net Lee suggested an unemployment insurance system tailored to the financial capacity of a crisis-hit country. Both employers and employees would provide money for the system splitting a levy on wages equivalent to at least 1 percent of salaries. Lee noted that among the three countries surveyed only South Korea provided laid-off workers with unemployment benefits. Without any such relief social unrest and instability ``would have negative repercussions on the recovery process.'' he said. In Indonesia the ILO has estimated that by next year about 140 million people or two out of three Indonesians will be living in poverty. The Indonesian government has said that the number could grow even worse if the country's currency the rupiah falls further against the U.S. dollar. The Thai government has predicted that by year's end there will be 3 million jobless Thais triple the number since the Asian crisis began last summer. Lee noted that many governments mired in recession were reluctant to increase social spending. He added that the ILO has not taken up the proposal with multilateral agencies such as the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund. Critics of such international funding agencies say that the economic reform packages call for financial restructuring but they do little to dampen the social effects of a economic belt-tightening. Nevertheless many analysts doubt that the hard-hit Asian economies will have much cash to spare for laid-off workers. ``To properly administer this program would need a fierce administrative system. I don't think those systems are in place and I don't think you can build them overnight'' said John P. Sevilla a vice president at Salomon Smith Barney who focuses on debt research in Indonesia and South Korea. Lee brushed away criticism over the potential costs deficit spending in times of economic crisis saying the plan would buttress economic restructuring by staving off social unrest with added security for the jobless. ``The bottom line is the plan is feasible and inexpensive and will not have large disproportionate effects'' Lee said. APW19981201.0143.txt.body.html APW19981201.1038.txt.body.html