The Employment Problem in Latin America: Perceptions and Stylized Facts (original) (raw)

The Quality of Employment in the Latin American Development Literature: Theory and Evidence

2017

This article examines how Latin American development theory has analysed labour markets in the region during the 1950s and following the 1980s debt crises before going on to examine empirical evidence from recent decades, which illustrates the extent to which these theories have played out in practice. Two themes are recurrent in this review of the literature on employment problems in Latin America. First, the region is seen as beset by all manners of labour abundance, which manifests itself not so much as open unemployment, but as large proportions of informal and marginally productive workers. Second, the literature has traditionally understood the quality of employment as meaning productive employment. The development challenge that the region faced was therefore seen as transforming marginally productive workers into fully productive ones. Not surprisingly, industrialization was initially seen as being key to resolving this challenge.

Documentos de trabajo Unemployment and precariousness of

2016

Some of the main indicators of labor market performance in Uruguay are here analyzed in order to give some insight on which are the most urgent problems to be faced. Unemployment, underemployment, instability of employment and informality have gone up in Uruguay in the late nineties, in spite of the country having grown at a high average annual rate. The individuals that have worsen their relative position in the labor market are identified so that policy implications – both labor and social policies- can be suitably differentiated according to the reasons explaining the process. RESUMEN Los indicadores de desempeño del mercado laboral uruguayo aquí analizados ayudan a la comprensión de cuáles son los problemas más urgentes a enfrentar. El desempleo, el subempleo, la inestabilidad laboral y la informalidad aumentaron en la segunda mitad de los noventa, a pesar de que el país creció a una alta tasa promedio anual. Los individuos que han empeorado su posición relativa en el mercado de...

Underemployment in Latin America

The Journal of Developing Areas, 2015

The objective of this paper is to identify the determinants of trust in government in the Latin American countries, using a cross section of average labor market and social data of the 2007-2012 period. The methodology consists of the estimation of equations based on the application of Phillips and Hansen's cointegration least squares, using as independent variables labor market indicators, as well as those associated with public expenditures, institutional quality and others. The emphasis of this paper is to study the association between trust in government and economic and social variables. Results show that while inequality is an important determinant of trust in government, the rates of female self employment and quality employment have positive and negative impacts on trust in government. Male self and quality employment have no impacts. Citizens' perception that government is committed to combat poverty leads to increased trust in government. This is a topic that has not received attention in the literature.The main limitation of this study is the reduced size of the sample of 18 observations. It is concluded that increasing social expenditures and reducing inequality would be conducive to higher levels of trust in the government in the Latin American countries.

Macro Policy and Employment Problems in Latin America

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

Despite macroeconomic stabilization and structural reforms, employment problems have persisted in Latin America. The 1990s have seen a slowdown in the rate of job creation, unemployment rates have stagnated at about 10%; informal sector employment has expanded, and increases in real wages have been particularly favorable to skilled workers. The purpose of this article is to explain this apparent labor paradox. The main conclusion is that economic cycles explain the fluctuations of employment and unemployment rate (around their structural levels), while price stabilizations and structural reforms have affected the composition of labor demand and relative wages.

Políticas macro y problemas del empleo en América Latina

1998

Despite macroeconomic stabilization and structural reforms, employment problems have persisted in Latin America. The 1990s have seen a slowdown in the rate of job creation, unemployment rates have stagnated at about 10%; informal sector employment has expanded, and increases in real wages have been particularly favorable to skilled workers. The purpose of this article is to explain this apparent labor paradox. The main conclusion is that economic cycles explain the fluctuations of employment and unemployment rate (around their structural levels), while price stabilizations and structural reforms have affected the composition of labor demand and relative wages.