employment trends labour market indicators and the new mdg goals of full and productive employment...

Employment Trends www.ilo.org/trends

Labour Market Indicators and the new MDG goals of full and

productive employment and decent work for all

Lawrence Jeff Johnson

Chief, Employment TrendsInternational Labour Organisation

Geneva, Switzerland


The MDG goals

• World leaders agreed to several important targets at the 2005 World Summit.

• They recommended the incorporation of these targets into the set used to follow up on the Millennium Declaration, including a new target under MDG1.


The MDG goals

New MDG 1 Target:

To make the goals of full and productive employment and decent work for all, including for women and young people, a central objective of our relevant national and international policies and our national development strategies


Employment-to-population ratios for persons aged 15+ and youth (15-24) by sex

The share of working poor (US$1.25 a day) in total employment

Labour productivity

Vulnerable employment

What are the new indicators ?


Employment-to-population ratio for persons aged 15 +

• Worldwide, slightly more than 6 persons out of 10 are working

• The highest ratio is in East Asia (71.4 per cent)

• Lowest in Middle East and North Africa (around 46 per cent)

• There is no “correct” employment-to-population ratio


Employment-to-population ratio for persons aged 15 +

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

80.0

WORLD DevelopedEconomies

andEuropean

Union

Central andSouth

EasternEurope

(non-EU) &CIS

East Asia South-EastAsia and

the Pacific

South Asia LatinAmericaand the

Caribbean

Middle East NorthAfrica

Sub-Saharan

Africa

1997 2007


Employment-to-population ratio for youth (15–24)

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0


andEuropean

Union

Central andSouth

EasternEurope

(non-EU) &CIS


the Pacific


Caribbean


Sub-Saharan

Africa

1997 2007


Share of working poor (US$1.25 a day) in total employment

• Worldwide, over 600 million persons are considered as “working poor”

• 2 out of every 10 workers are working and earning less than US$ 1.25 a day

• Over the last 10 years, the ratio has been declining of 15 percentage points


Share of working poor (US$1.25 a day)in total employment

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

WORLD Central andSouth

EasternEurope

(non-EU) &CIS


the Pacific


Caribbean

Middle East North Africa Sub-Saharan

Africa

1997 2007


Share of working poor (US$2 a day)in total employment

0.0

20.0

40.0

60.0

80.0

100.0

WORLD Central andSouth

EasternEurope

(non-EU) &CIS


the Pacific


Caribbean


Sub-Saharan

Africa

1997 2007


Labour productivity

• Over the past 10 years, labour productivity has been increasing in every region

• But the gap between developed economies and the rest of the world is wider than ever !


Labour productivity

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

80000


&European

Union

Central &South

EasternEurope

(non-EU) &CIS

East Asia South EastAsia & the

Pacific

South Asia LatinAmerica &

theCaribbean


Sub-Saharan

Africa

Ou

tpu

t p

er w

ork

er (

2005

US

$ at

PP

P)

1997 2007


Vulnerable employment

• Worldwide, around 1.5 billion vulnerable employed (of which around 900 million women)

• 5 out of every 10 workers can be considered vulnerably employed• 33.9 per cent own-account workers• 16.7 per cent contributing family workers

• Lowest in developed economies (10.1 per cent)

• Largest reduction over the past ten years: East Asia (- 8.3 percentage points)


Global vulnerable employment and vulnerable employment share

1'250

1'300

1'350

1'400

1'450

1'500

1'550

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Vu

lne

rab

le e

mp

loy

me

nt

(mil

lio

n)

49.0

49.5

50.0

50.5

51.0

51.5

52.0

52.5

53.0

53.5

54.0

Sh

are

of v

uln

era

ble

em

plo

ym

en

t (%) Vulnerable employment

(million)

Vulnerable employment as ashare of total employment


Vulnerable employment share

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

80.0

90.0


andEuropean

Union

Central andSouth

EasternEurope

(non-EU) &CIS


the Pacific


Caribbean


Sub-Saharan

Africa

1997 2007


Conclusion

• These 4 indicators are powerful tools to analyze the progress made by each country (or region) in promoting full and productive employment and decent work for all


New Target 1bis has 3 specific dimensions:

Full Employment Productive Employment Decent EmploymentNo Single Labour Market Indicator exists today that would address all three dimensions of the target or meet the specified requirements


• Informal sector employment

• Hours of work

• Part-time workers

• Employment by sector

• Status in employment

• Employment-to-population ratio

• Labour force participation rate

Key Indicators of the Labour Market

Educational attainment and illiteracy

Inactivity rate

Time-related underemployment

Unemployment by educational attainment

• Long-term unemployment

• Youth unemployment

• Unemployment

Poverty and Working Poor

Employment Elasticity

Productivity and unit labour cost

Hourly compensation costs

Occupational wages rates & earnings

Real manufacturing wage indices

employment trends labour market indicators and the new mdg goals of full and productive employment...

Documents