About 20 million people could lose their jobs by the end of next year due to the impact of the global financial crisis, the head of the International Labor Organization (ILO) said on Monday.

"We need prompt and coordinated government actions to avert a social crisis that could be severe, long-lasting and global," ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said in a statement.

ILO's preliminary estimates indicated that the "number of unemployed could rise from 190 million in 2007 to 210 million in late 2009," Somavia said.

He added that "the number of working poor living on less than a dollar a day could rise by some 40 million – and those at two dollars a day by more than 100 million."

Somavia also said that the current crisis would hit hardest such sectors as construction, automotive, tourism, finance, services and real estate.

"This is not simply a crisis on Wall Street, this is a crisis on all streets," he said.

"We need an economic rescue plan for working families and the real economy, with rules and policies that deliver decent jobs. We must link better productivity to salaries and growth to employment," he added.

(Xinhua News Agency October 21, 2008)