In a brief period of time after the 2001-2002 crisis, there was a dramatic fall in informal salaried employment in Argentina. Informal employment—also called “non-registered employment”—refers to employment for which no social security contribution is made. This indicator dropped by...

As by product of economic growth, jobs are indeed transformational. In other words, efficiency increases as workers get better at what they do (as more productive jobs appear and less productive one disappear). In fact societies flourish as jobs bring together people from different ethnic and...

This paper analyzes recent labor market developments in the Chilean economy. The evidence shows a booming labor market with strong job creation since 2010. Most of the jobs created during the past three years are quality jobs—that is, jobs with a written contract and whose employers have made...

This chapter reviews the available evidence on the linkages between trade reform, labor markets, and FDI. We begin by drawing on studies of sixteen countries that underwent trade reforms in the 1980s and 1990s. These sixteen countries were chosen because of their inclusion in the United Nations...

Conventional wisdom holds that international political pressure and domestic civil unrest in the mid-1970s and 1980s brought an end to apartheid in South Africa. I show that, prior to these events, labor market pressure in the late 1960s/early 1970s caused a dramatic unraveling of apartheid in...

This paper explores the human development implications of circular migration — both where it occurs naturally and where governments work to create it. The paper discusses various conceptions and definitions of circular migration, and concludes that circular migration is not intrinsically...

After almost 20 years of prudent macro policies, Peru seems in better shape than before to withstand the effects of a financial crisis. Progress, however, has left some policy areas unscathed and the labor market is one of them. In this paper we analyze the potential effects of the crisis on...

This study investigates convergence in hired farm wages in U.S. counties over the period 1978-92. The time-invariant distribution of wages is characterized using Markov chains. This study is concerned with two questions: Are regional hired farm wages moving in the same direction? If so, are they...

Analysis in this policy note indicates a rapid deterioration in employment opportunities for young individuals transitioning from school to work in Egypt. Despite substantial improvements in labor market outcomes in recent years (in raising employment and participation and in lowering...

This paper analyzes characteristics of nonfarm enterprises, their employment growth patterns, and constraints in doing business in rural Tanzania. Using unique survey data, the we describe a low-return sector struggling to compete in a challenging business environment. However, about one-third...