The number of middle-class workers in the developing world has risen sharply over the past decade, potentially creating a much-needed boost to future growth and consumption in these economies.

New figures in the International Labour Organization’s report entitle: “Global Employment Trends 2013: recovering from a second jobs dip,” made available to the Ghana News Agency over the weekend shows that 42 per cent of workers in developing countries - nearly 1.1 billion workers - are now “middle-class,” living with their families on more than US$4 per person per day.

It says the rise is particularly marked in East Asia.

The report says since 2001, an additional 400 million workers have joined the ranks of the middle- class, with their incomes sufficient for their families to consume between US$4 and $13 a day per person.

It says this is a doubling of the number of workers in the emerging middle class; with a further 186 million workers now living on more than $13 a day.

It says by 2017, the ILO estimates that an additional 390 million workers in the developing world could be middle-class.