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Country employment strategies

Across the globe, countries are experimenting with strategies to increase employment levels. These policy responses offer important insights and lessons to other countries. This focus area provides a space for the sharing these insights and lessons across our network. The focuses of the themes are on developing country economies.

Labour shares
Youth employment

Employment monitoring

What progress is being made? That is a central question that is asked by policy actors regarding employment strategies. It is often a difficult question to answer; due to the way data is collected, definitional controversies and changes in the economy itself. This focus area provides an online space for debate and discussion on employment monitoring. The focus area also provides for indicators on employment across several countries.


Government employment programmes

Governments play roles in directly providing employment in the public sector. Contemporary practice however shows that governments play additional roles through public employment programmes. These programmes provide employment through public works, as well as introducing transitional jobs to tackle youth unemployment. This focus area provides resources and publications focussed on both employment in the public sector, and public employment programmes.

Public sector size
Transitional jobs programmes

Informal economy

The informal economy is an area that is receiving significantly more policy focus. This new policy focus is important in developing countries, where informal employment provides a key source of income for poor households. From an employment policy perspective, the possibility of making the informal economy grow to absorb more entrants, or it growing into expansion of the formal economy are important policy questions.

Formal and informal linkages
Informal and small enterprises

Labour markets and social policy

The interactions between social policy and labour markets are an important contemporary development. The importance is that social policy could provide the safety net for unemployed, and for those engaged in low paid work. New thinking on social policy however seeks to not merely provide income support, but rather create assets in poor households. This argument is set in a context of extensive debates on the role of the state and the relationships between labour markets and social security provision by government.

Asset-based social policy

Labour standards

Labour standards provide an important role in providing employers and workers with a set of rules. The ILO has made this a priority with its focus on Decent Work. This focus area provides space for a debate on labour standards. Key areas include changes in employment contracts, the relationship between labour standards and employment, and the impacts of labour standards on livelihoods. This focus area hopes to transcend the usual ‘less regulation versus more regulation' debate, and to focus on evidence and strategies related to labour standards.

Forced labour
Trade agreements and labour rights

Macro-economy

The macro-economic strategies of countries attempt to reach a multiple of goals, including economic growth and employment creation. The relationships between macroeconomic strategy, for instance on government expenditure, and employment creation are a much-debated topic. So to are the relationships between exchange rates and employment creation. The focus area on the macro-economy provides a space for members of the EPN to reflect and debate these issues.

Exchange rates and employment

Trade and industry

The trade and industry focus area provides a collection of publications and other resources, with priority to the impacts of government strategy and economic reorganisation on employment. There are two important areas covered in this focus area. First, the interactions between countries and their impacts on investment and employment creation are highlighted. Second, the industrialisation process is often a given for creating jobs, but today services might be more important. This focus area provides for a space for bringing together the debates in these areas.

Changing character of industrial development