Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The high incidence of informality in developing countries acts as a drag on economic development due to the associated efficiency and equity costs and implied weak governance. Policy makers therefore want to reduce informality. This note presents guidance on policy levers to make formality more attractive and informality less attractive from the perspective of small, medium and large firms, and from the perspective of micro-entrepreneurs. It elaborates the challenges for shifting incentives in favor of being formal and employing workers on formal contracts rather than operating under the regulatory radar, and presents a range of policy options.

Labor Markets --- Private Sector Development

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Human capital development is at the top of Indonesia's economic development agenda. The National Long-Term Development Plan (RPJPN 2005-2025) identifies human resource development as one of the key drivers of the eight national development goals to be achieved by 2025. As part of this push, the government of Indonesia has taken several steps to build a skilled and competitive workforce building on the country's demographic strengths, strategic position, and sustained economic growth. An important milestone was the launch in 2016 of a national initiative known as Revitalization of Secondary Vocational Schools, which the Ministry of Education and Culture has updated recently. This initiative focuses on strengthening the quality and relevance of secondary vocational schools. Chapter one proposes a framework for defining an advanced LMIS that includes stakeholders, functions, key elements, key characteristics, and essential features that go well beyond those of an online job-matching platform. Chapter two discusses the current state of Indonesia's AyoKitaKerja, which is the focus of the analysis, is the most developed LMIS function and is considered the building block of Indonesia's LMIS. Chapter two also presents Indonesia's LMIS-related initiatives in addition to AyoKitaKerja and introduces some comparison with LMISs in other countries. Chapter three focuses in more detail on the factors that are essential for building up the five key characteristics of a well-functioning LMIS. The analysis benchmarks AyoKitaKerja against Korea's Work-net in each of these areas, with a particular focus on the job-matching function. Finally, chapter four provides a vision and action plan for developing a comprehensive LMIS.

Labor Markets --- Social Protections and Labor

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The automation and out-sourcing of routine, codifiable tasks are seen as driving polarization in labor markets in high-income countries. This paper first offers several explanations for why developing countries might show differing dynamics, at least for the present. Census data then confirms this, showing on average no evidence of polarization in developing countries. However, incipient polarization in a few countries as well as major drives to automate in some large, labor intensive producers suggests this may not remain the case. This raises concerns first about the impact on equity within those countries, but second the possibility that the traditional flying geese pattern"-whereby low skilled jobs are progressively off-shored to poorer and poorer countries-may be short circuited.

Automation --- Developing Countries --- Globalization --- Labor Markets --- Polarization

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This report is the second in a series, presenting labor market developments in the Western Balkan countries in 2017 and comparing with selected member states of the European Union (EU). The report is the result of collaboration between the World Bank and the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW) and is based on the South-Eastern Europe (SEE) jobs gateway database on labor market indicators. That database uses labor force survey (LFS) data provided by the statistical offices of the individual Western Balkan countries, and by Eurostat for the EU comparator countries, and is available online at the SEE jobs gateway. The objective of this report is to showcase these data for a general, non-technical audience, and present a few insights into how labor markets in the Western Balkans have developed over the past year. This year's report includes a special topic on improving data and knowledge about labor mobility from the Western Balkans.

Employment and Unemployment --- Labor Markets --- Rural Development --- Rural Labor Markets --- Social Protections and Labor

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The Global Jobs Indicators Database (JOIN) provides information on labor market outcomes from countries across all income groups with a focus on low- and middle-income countries. The sources are in most cases Labor Force Surveys (LFSs), but other types of household surveys that include labor market information are also added. The information on the different labor market outcomes is disaggregated by gender, urban or rural area, age group of worker, and education level. All indicators are derived from a World Bank repository of harmonized household surveys. The indicators can be subsumed into four topics: sociodemographics, labor force and employment status, employment by sector and occupation, and labor market outcomes, including earnings. To ensure data reliability, a series of quality checks to both the indicators and the micro-data at the cross-sectional survey level and at the survey time-series level are conducted. Results are, among others, corroborated using statistics provided by the International Labour Organization (ILO) or the World Bank's World Development Indicators (WDI) as well as through outlier detection and consistency checks. As a result, JOIN provides only indicators for surveys that surpassed a quality check threshold. JOIN contains about 1,430 household surveys conducted in 160 countries. A JOIN benchmarking tool enables further customization options including interactions of key indicators for more granular analysis. This tool allows users to compare the labor market in their country of interest to a series of up to 10 other countries. Together, JOIN, the JOIN benchmarking tool, and the entire Jobs Diagnostic toolkit enable a thorough analysis of the labor market supply side at both a nationally aggregated level and the micro level.

Employment --- Employment and Unemployment --- Labor Markets --- Social Protections and Labor