Trade and Employment

Assessing the effects of trade on employment

The ILO STRENGTHEN Project in the Philippines will hold a technical training workshop to enhance skills through use of tools, methods and models for an empirical analysis of the effects of trade on employment.

The ILO’s Strengthening the Impact of Trade on Employment in the Philippines (STRENGTHEN), a European Union funded global project, will hold a training for specialists to look at the effects of trade on employment. The training aims to strengthen technical skills in empirical analysis of the effects of trade on employment by using a social accounting matrix (SAM) and analysis of the multiplier effect. It will help lay the groundwork for researchers and analysts interested in more complex methods such as Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models.

The training is intended primarily for development practitioners, policy analysts, policy advisors, researchers affiliated with the relevant ministries and social partners from government, workers and employers organizations in the Philippines. It will combine three days of face-to-face training and a structured follow-up phase of succeeding meetings and workshops. The follow-up phase will feature simulation exercises to estimate and to analyze the effects of trade on employment under specific scenarios.

The STRENGTHEN Project overall supports emerging economies like the Philippines to improve and strengthen the coherence and convergence of its sector, trade and employment through better analysis, more coherent policy-making, and enhanced programmes. The project further assists the country in harnessing international trade, providing more opportunities for decent work and raising employment productivity.