Policy Briefs

  1. Policy Brief 1 - Investments in infrastructure: an effective tool to create decent jobs

    17 November 2010

    It is of crucial importance to assess the overall labour outcome of these investments in terms of direct, indirect and induced employment, not only to assess their short-term effects, but also to assess the longer-term impact on growth and its distributional effects. As many infrastructure projects in low and medium-income countries are co-financed by IFI, these institutions should make all efforts to allow for larger labour content in infrastructure development.

  2. Policy Brief 2 - Innovations in public employment programmes

    19 November 2010

    Public Employment Programmes (PEP) are effectively used to increase aggregate demand for labour in times of crisis. They can complement employment creation by the private sector, and offer an additional policy instrument with which to tackle the problem of under and informal employment, as part of a wider employment and social protection policy.

  3. Policy Brief 3 - Including the informal economy in the recovery measures

    21 January 2011

    While the media, official data, policy attention and recovery packages primarily target the regular and protected formal workers and employees, there is a real danger of increased informalization that will be harder to reverse. It is essential that measures for sustained recovery include the informal economy, prevent further growth of informalization and that the impact of the crisis on labour is monitored from a comprehensive perspective.

  4. Policy Brief 4: Setting an Employment Target - Some Considerations

    06 December 2010

    Employment targeting is not an alternative to “inflation targeting” in the sense that it is not a pendular swing away from the importance of macroeconomic stability. There is a difference between the two : the latter assumes implicitly that sound “macroeconomic fundamentals” are not merely necessary, but sufficient for generating output growth and, by extension, employment growth ; the former assumes that the era of “market fundamentalism” which has characterized the past quarter century has been insufficient in generating an adequate number of jobs for all those who want to work.

  5. Policy Brief 5 - The Role of Employment Services in Supporting the Labour Market

    19 November 2010

    The provision of effective employment services is central to a well functioning labour market. These services may be provided through government institutions as a component of Ministries of Labour, through private employment agencies and/or, through not-for-profit and non-governmental organizations.

  6. Policy Brief 6 - Including people with disabilities in crisis response

    06 December 2010

    Even before the economic, social and jobs crisis, people with disabilities were less likely to be in employment than non-disabled persons and to count among the poorest in society. While there is scant data on how they have fared during the crisis, it is generally assumed that they have been disproportionately affected, directly or indirectly. Their potential to contribute to recovery needs to be recognized and tapped to ensure that they are not locked in greater poverty than before, that they can live independently and participate actively in society.

  7. Policy Brief 7 - Strategies to limit or avoid job losses in enterprises

    19 November 2010

    Roughly three-quarters of all policy responses to the crisis have entailed measures taken to provide credit and tax benefits to enterprises (mostly SMEs), often as part of a broader package of support. These measures target enterprise level support, helping them to weather the crisis and, by extension, to avoid laying workers off. This policy brief focuses more specifically on direct measures taken to protect jobs and groups them into two categories: firstly, working time adjustments and secondly, wage adjustments and employment subsidies.

  8. Policy Brief 8 - Supporting SMEs and their workers through the crisis

    21 January 2011

    The Global Jobs Pact, designed to guide national and international policies aimed at stimulating recovery, specifically recognizes the contribution of small and medium-sized enterprises SMEs).

  9. Policy Brief 9 - Promoting Green Jobs for Recovery and Sustainable Development

    19 November 2010

    The response to the international crisis is an opportunity to change the way governments shape and implement economic development strategies. The mounting calls for a more sustainable development path – in social, economic, and environmental terms – and ultimately a “greener” world economy should be translated into policy measures that i) support communities, sectors, regions and workers, suffering from climate change, including through social dialogue and expanded social protection, ii) promote investment in the creation of green jobs, and iii) strengthen skills and vocational training systems to respond better to emerging needs in the labour market. Each of these components forms a part of the Green Jobs Initiative, a partnership of the ILO, UNEP, IOE, and ITUC.

  10. Policy Brief 10 - The Resilience of Social and Solidarity Enterprises: the Example of Cooperatives

    19 November 2010

    What sets cooperatives, mutual benefit societies and social entreprises apart from other forms of private enterprise is their connection to the community, underlying values, ethics and democratic principles. The Global Jobs Pact acknowledges the active role of cooperatives in accelerating employment creation, jobs recovery and sustaining enterprises.

  11. Policy Brief 11 - Responsible practices in supply chains

    06 December 2010

    At times of crisis the main challenge for enterprises, and ‘employers and workers’ representatives at the enterprise level, is how to address the impact on the entreprise through, dialogue, information, consultation and negotiations, and minimize the social costs.

  12. Policy Brief 12 - Financing job creation: why access to finance is key and what policy can and cannot do

    19 November 2010

    In order to allow SMEs to invest and create jobs, they need to have the financial means to do it : capital. This comes in two forms : own capital through retained profit generated over past business periods ; or debt capital from suppliers, clients and especially banks and other financial institutions.

  13. Policy Brief 13 - Coherent Trade and Employment Policies in the Global Crisis

    19 November 2010

    Globalization increases economies’ exposure to external shocks, in particular if global markets become increasingly volatile. Creating fiscal space during times of growth should, therefore, be a priority for policy makers at national and international levels, as this will allow them to introduce mitigation measures in periods of crisis. Emphasis should also be given during growth periods to diversifying countries’ export and higher value–added production structures in order to reduce vulnerability to external shocks, but also with an aim to industrialize and to raise income levels in developing countries. Strengthening administrative capacity in general and social protection systems in particular should also be a priority during growth periods. In particular, the need to build up fiscal space should not be considered a constraint for strengthening social protection systems.

  14. Policy Brief 14 - Policy Options to support young workers during economic recovery

    19 November 2010

    The global jobs crisis has hit young people hard. Of the world’s estimated 211 million unemployed people in 2009, nearly 40 per cent – or about 81 million – were between 15 and 24 years of age. In many countries, this grim unemployment picture is darkened further by the large number of youth engaged in poor quality and low paid jobs with intermittent and insecure work arrangements, including in the informal economy.

  15. Policy Brief 15 - Global economic crisis, gender and work: key policy challenges and options

    19 November 2010

    This Policy Brief argues that there are specific gender responsive measures that countries should take : placing women’s equal access to decent and productive employment as part and parcel of the key priority in macroeconomic policy making ; adopting fiscal policies in favour of the working poor particularly, women ; enhancing human resources through investing in education, skills development, and life-long learning for girls and women ; engendering public investments for job creation to ensure equal access and benefits for women ; as well as enhancing/expanding social protection measures targeting women in particular.

  16. Policy Brief 16 - Income generation and sustainable livelihoods for people living with and affected by HIV and AIDS

    19 November 2010

    The global financial and economic crisis threatens to reverse the gains made in HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support programmes in many middle and low income countries. The Global Jobs Pact (GJP) addresses the social and employment impacts of the international financial and economic crisis. This Pact calls for workplace programmes on HIV/AIDS as part of an effective crisis response and advocates for a social protection floor, to facilitate access to basic social services and income transfers for the poorest.

  17. Policy Brief 17 - Protecting Migrant Workers Beyond the Crisis

    19 November 2010

    The Global Jobs Pact (GJP) has identified migrant workers as one of the vulnerable groups and stresses the fact that specific policy measures are needed to counter the negative effects of the crisis on migrant workers.

  18. Policy Brief 18 - Work Sharing : Working Time Adjustments as a Job Preservation Strategy

    19 November 2010

    Work sharing is more likely to result in a “win-win-win” solution when : governments take an active role in promoting it ; schemes are negotiated and implemented through social dialogue and collective bargaining ; wage supplements (e.g. partial unemployment benefits) are provided to help offset workers’ reduced earnings ; measures are inclusive, covering regular and non-standard workers ; and managers make necessary changes in the work environment, such as redesigning work processes and supporting training.

  19. Policy Brief 19 - The ILO strategy to extend social security

    19 November 2010

    In light of the importance of national social security systems in times of crisis and beyond, the ILO has launched a Global Campaign on the Extension of Social Security and Coverage for all which promotes extending social security along to dimensions: horizontally, to an increasing number of people and vertically, providing progressively higher level of benefits. A key message at the heart of the extension strategy is the recognition that social security systems are not simply a cost for governments on the expenditure side but rather an investment with a rate of return in terms of more productive workers and a smooth functioning of the economy throughout the business cycle.

  20. Policy Brief 20 - Building Social Protection Floors to be prepared for economic crises and to ensure equitable growth

    19 November 2010

    The global economic crisis and its repercussions on societies has been a forceful reminder of the disastrous effects of a lack of social security coverage.