As many as 2.4 million Latin Americans could lose their jobs this year in the wake of the global economic downturn, ending a five-year rally of declining unemployment, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said Tuesday.

“The employment crisis has arrived in the region,” ILO's regional director for Latin America Jean Maninat said in Peru. “After five consecutive years of unemployment, until 2008, the rate will go back up in 2009.”

Last year's annual urban unemployment rate dropped to 7.4 percent from 8.1 in 2007.

Bucking a three-year trend, Costa Rica's national jobless rate increased from July 2007 to July 2008, from 4.6 percent to 4.9 percent. Urban unemployment remained at 4.8 percent.

Outside the region, layoffs in rich nations will also drive down economies here, as migrant workers abroad cut back on the remittances they send home to Latin America each month, which in Central American and Caribbean countries makes up more than 10 percent of GDP.

The slump will hurt tourism too, according to the World Tourism Organization, which said in Latin America the sector saw growth of 2 to 3 percent last year – far below the 6.6 percent growth of 2007 – and tourism looks set to rise at most 2 percent this year, if at all.

GDP growth will fall throughout the region, the Panorama said. In Costa Rica, GDP growth could slow from 3.3 percent last year to just 1.0 percent this year.