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, Karen, Winkler, Hernán, Diaz Bonilla, Carolina, Sanchez, Diana
- Citation
- “ Barreto, Karen ; Winkler, Hernán ; Diaz Bonilla, Carolina ; Sanchez, Diana . 2024 . The Quality of Jobs in Latin America and the Caribbean . © Washington, DC: World Bank . http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42411 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO . ”
- Collection(s)
- Policy Notes
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1596/42411
- Identifier externaldocumentum
- 34405890
- Identifier internaldocumentum
- 34405890
- Pages
- 13
- Published in
- United States of America
- Report
- 194163
- Rights
- CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO
- Rights Holder
- World Bank
- Rights URI
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/igo
- UNIT
- EFI-LCR-POV-Poverty and Equity (ELCPV)
- URI
- https://hdl.handle.net/10986/42411
- date disclosure
- 2024-11-13
- region geographical
- Caribbean , Latin America
Files
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
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- 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
