What are the effects of job polarization on skills distribution of young workers in developing countries?
What are the effects of job polarization on skills distribution of young workers in developing countries?
The International Labour Organization is the tripartite U.N. agency that promotes Decent Work through employment, social security, labour standards and social dialogue. Its work on skills development is guided by the conceptual framework on Skills to improve productivity, employment growth, and development agreed in 2008 by representatives of Governments, Employers’ Associations and Workers’ Associations. Research, policy advice, and pilot projects and technical cooperation programmes to apply good practices in different circumstances across its 185 member States aims to boost the employability of workers, the productivity and competitiveness of enterprises, and the inclusiveness of economic growth. The ILO Secretariat in offices in 40 countries works with Ministries of Labour, employers’ organizations, and trade unions to integrate skills development into national and sector development strategies in order to better meet current labour market needs and to prepare for the jobs of the future; to expand access to employment-related training so that youth, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups are better able to acquire skills and secure productive and decent work; and to improve the ability of public employment services to provide career guidance, maintain labour exchange services, and deliver active labour market programmes.For more information regarding the ILO’s work on skills and employability go to: http://www.ilo.org/skills/lang--en/index.htm; for ILO/Cinterfor's Knowledge Management Plarform, see: http://www.oitcinterfor.org
Globally, nearly 68 million young women and men are looking for and available for work, and an estimated 123 million young people are working but living in poverty. The number who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) stands at 267 million, a majority of whom are young women. Significantly, young people are three times as likely as adults (25 years and older) to be unemployed.
Skills development is a primary means of enabling young people to make a smooth transition to work. A comprehensive approach is required to integrate young women and men in the labour market, including relevant and quality skills training, labour market information, career guidance and employment services, recognition of prior learning, incorporating entrepreneurship with training and effective skills forecasting. Improved basic education and core work skills are particularly important to enable youth to engage in lifelong learning as well as transition to the labour market.
Case studies that document good practices and illustrate the benefits and lessons learnt of particular approaches or methods in real practice.
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Working papers, reports, and other publications from international organizations, academic institutions and bilateral agencies. Research findings to stimulate informed debate on skills, employment and productivity issues.
Technical Brief No.7. Part of the Work4Youth project, funded by the MasterCard Foundation.
One of the most discussed topics in the domain of labour economics during the last couple of decades has been the polarization of employment in industrialized countries, namely the growth of high and low paying jobs and the decline of jobs paying wages around the middle of the wage distribution. Economists identify two main reasons for this phenomenon, the first one being technological progress and the second one the globalization of the world economy. Both factors have contributed to changes in the distribution of skills demanded by employers in the labour markets of industrialized countries.
The bulk of the literature on employment polarization focuses on the industrialized world although the concepts of 'skill-biased technological change' and globalization have obvious implications for the distribution of employment also in developing countries. The ILO school-to-work transition surveys (SWTS) offer an opportunity to study the phenomenon of polarization more closely from the perspective of 23 developing countries. The objective of the technical brief is to examine the skill distribution of young workers in different industries as a function of their trade openness. According to the globalization hypothesis, the jobs that are most prone to be offshored in the industrialized countries are those performed by middle-skilled workers who are, in the context of the present paper, workers with secondary education. However, once these jobs are offshored, they are often performed by workers in the developing countries with education levels at the secondary level or higher. Therefore, this paper will examine the relative occupational skills level of workers in the sectors most open to trade. Three case studies of Madagascar, Ukraine and Vietnam will be presented to better demonstrate the research topic.
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