The creation of more and better jobs has been a key driver of poverty and inequality reduction.However, while estimates on the number of jobs are available for most countries,comprehensive measures of job quality are not typically reported systematically. This notecontributes to the filling of this gap by studying patterns of job quality across countries and overtime in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). This study uses the Job Quality Index (JQI) basedon Brummundi, Mann, and Rodriguez-Castelan (2018), which incorporates four keyemployment characteristics that are key to assessing job quality: earnings, benefits, security,and satisfaction.
Authors
Barreto Herrera,Karen Yiseth, Winkler-Seales,Hernan Jorge, Diaz-Bonilla,Carolina, Sanchez Castro,Diana Marcela
- Disclosure Date
- 2024/10/16
- Disclosure Status
- Disclosed
- Doc Name
- The Quality of Jobs in Latin America and the Caribbean - Technical Note
- Pages
- 13
- Product Line
- Advisory Services & Analytics
- Published in
- United States of America
- Rel Proj ID
- 6L-Poverty And Equity In Lac-P506095
- TF No/Name
- TF0C5110-Supporting Statistical Capacity in Central America and the Dominican Re,TF0C5179-Regional Report on the Climate Change - Poverty Nexus in LAC and Streng
- Unit Owning
- EFI-LCR-POV-Poverty and Equity (ELCPV)
- Version Type
- Final
- Volume No
- 1
Table of Contents
- Technical Note 1
- Key messages 1
- The JQI exhibits substantial variation across countries with Chile and Costa Rica leading 1
- Important gaps in job quality also exist within countries with women youth and rural 1
- The employment-to-GDP elasticity grows in most countries when adjusting for job 1
- Episodes of poverty and inequality reduction tend to be accompanied with increases in 1
- Low labor productivity is linked to poorer job quality across the region. 1
- 1. Motivation and Methods 2
- Changes in employment and earnings have been one of the main drivers of poverty and inequality reduction in LAC over the last decade 2
- The task of assigning a monetary value to these job characteristics involves a high degree of ambiguity. 2
- In practice these four dimensions of job quality are measured according to the following criteria 2
- 2. Findings 3
- The different dimensions of job quality exhibit substantial variation across countries in LAC especially in terms of benefits and security figure 1 3
- Figure 1 Dimensions of the JQI by Country Latest Year 4
- When aggregating the different dimensions of the JQI Chile and Costa Rica have the highest levels of job quality in the region while Honduras Guatemala and Peru rank the lowest figure 2 4
- Figure 2 Job Quality Index JQI First vs. Latest Year Available 4
- The quality of jobs is highly correlated with welfare indicators across countries. 5
- Figure 3 Poverty Inequality GDP per capita and Quality of Jobs 5
- In most LAC countries the elasticity of employment to economic growth strengthens when adjusting for the quality of the newly created jobs. 6
- Figure 4 Employment-to-GDP Elasticities 6
- Differences in labor productivity across sectors and across countries in LAC were strongly correlated with job quality 7
- Figure 5 Productivity Subindices by Sector vs. JQI Circa 2023 7
- Figure 6 JQI by Area Gender and Age Latest Year Available 8
- 3. Final Remarks 9
- Alkire Sabina and James Foster. 2011. Counting and Multidimensional Poverty 10
- Measurement. Journal of Public Economics 95 78 47687. 10
- Brummund Peter Christopher Mann and Carlos RodriguezCastelan. 2018. Job Quality and 10
- Poverty in Latin America. Review of Development Economics 22 4 16821708. 10
- Bruns A. and N. Pilkauskas. 2019. Multiple Job Holding and Mental Health among Low-income 10
- Mothers. Womens Health Issues 29 3 20512. 10
- Dickey H. V. Watson and A. Zangelidis. 2011. Is It All About Money An Examination of the 10
- Motives behind Moonlighting. Applied Economics 43 26 376774. 10
- Kapsos Steven. 2006. The Employment Intensity of Growth Trends and Macroeconomic 10
- Determinants. In Labor Markets in Asia Issues and Perspectives edited by Jesus Felipe and Rana Hasan 143201. London Palgrave Macmillan UK. 10
- Klinger S. and E. Weber. 2020. Secondary Job Holding in Germany. Applied Economics 52 10
- 30 323856. 10
- LaMontagne A. D. L. S. Too L. Punnett and A. J. Milner. 2021. Changes in Job Security and 10
- Mental Health An Analysis of 14 Annual Waves of an Australian Working-population Panel Survey. American Journal of Epidemiology 190 2 20715. 10
- Morris Michael Sebastian Ashwini Rekha Viviana Maria Eugenia Perego John. D. 10
- Pouliakas Konstantinos and Wieteke S. Conen. 2023. Multiple Job-holding Career Pathway or 10
- Dire Straits IZA World of Labor 356. doi 10.15185izawol.356.v2. 10
- Watson B. and L. Osberg. 2018. Job Insecurity and Mental Health in Canada. Applied 10
- Economics 50 38 413752. 10
- World Bank. 2013. World Development Report 2013 Jobs . Washington DC The World Bank. Zangelidis A. 2014. Labour Market Insecurity and Second Job-holding in Europe. Available at 10
- SSRN 2615268 10
- Table 1 Detailed Description of the Specific Survey Years and Collection Used 11
- Table 2 Variables Included in the JQI 11
- Table 3 Country-year-level Variables in the JQI 12
