Transcript Employment Policies

International Labour Office
Public policies for the promotion
and maintenance of employment
Presentation by:
Mohammed Mwamadzingo,
Senior Economist, ILO Geneva.
ACTRAV/ITC-ILO inter-regional course on
Decent Work response to the Global Economic
Crisis,
Turin, 22-30 November 2010
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Outline of the presentation
1. ILO Mandate on full employment
2. Realities and trends
3. The role of state in employment
creation
4. Core ILO programmes
5. Public employment programmes
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ILO Mandate on full employment
The objective of full employment is derived from:
– the 1944 Declaration of Philadelphia
– the Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No.
122),
– the Global Employment Agenda
– the Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair
Globalization
– the Global Jobs Pact
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II Realities and trends in
employment policies
 High income countries:
– 1930s to mid-1970s characterized by a major
movement to embrace full employment as a central
economic and social goal.
– Oil shocks of the 1790s and the emergence of
worldwide “stagflation” saw a paradigm shift in
which the control of inflation was seen as the
primary goal of economic policy.
– 2008 and 2009 saw virtually all advanced
economies focus on aggressive reductions in
interest rates and fiscal stimulus packages to stem
the decline in aggregate demand.
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II Realities and trends in
employment policies
 Low and middle income countries:
• 1960s to mid-1960s characterized by dirigiste
modernization and import substitution industrialization
policies
• the 1970s witnessed a shift in policy paradigms-emphasized private sector-driven, export-oriented and
FDI-dependent industrialization strategies
• The SAPs and PRSs of the World Bank and IMF in the
1980s through 1990s: characterized by job-less
growth, reduced public spending, growing inequality,
and higher external debt payments
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The role of state in employment creation
• The crisis and its employment effects have once
again brought the role of the state in
employment creation strongly to the forefront
due to massive losses of jobs in the private
sector:
• What is the role of the state?
– Overall employment policy and strategy
– State role in creating an enabling environment
– Direct role in employment creation
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The role of state in employment creation
The Global Jobs Pact and public employment
policies is recognized:
the role of direct employment creation by
government through emergency public works
programmes and employment guarantee
schemes that are well targeted and include the
informal economy
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The role of state in employment creation
The Global Jobs Pact also considers a broader
view:
- broad conceptualization of employment policy,
- stronger articulation of employment policies with
national development frameworks,
- importance of industrial policy, structural
transformation and sectoral strategies, and
-the role normative instruments on labour markets
and employment policies.
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Some ILO Programmes
Target specific policy areas and groups, such as:
-
Public investment in infrastructure
Active labour market policies
Labour market information systems
Social finance
Youth employment
Skills and employability
Enterprise development
Local economic development
But, many of these programmes are lopsided, and
only emphasizes supply side factors.
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Public policies on employment creation
Employment
Policy and
Reducing
Unemployment
Social
Protection and
Social Security
Public
Employment
Programmes
Crises
Responses and
the Global Jobs
Pact
Addressing
Deficits in
Infrastructure
and Services
Poverty
Reduction
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Public policies on employment creation
• Public Works Programmes (PWP) refer to the
more common and traditional programmes; although
these may be a temporary response to specific
shocks and crises, public works programmes can
also have a longer-term horizon.
• Employment Guarantee Programmes / Schemes
(EGP/S) which refer to long-term rights-based
programmes in which some level of entitlement to
work is provided.
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Public policies on employment creation
• Targeted Employment Programmes (TEP): These
are public employment programmes that aim to
reach a specified target group.
• Public Employment Programmes (PEP) include
all of the above as well as a wide spectrum of
options between them. It is used to refer to any
direct employment creation by government through
an employment programme - rather than through the
expansion of the civil service.
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Public policies on employment creation
Examples
• Bolsa Familia in Brazil contributed to a dramatic
fall in inequality and a reduction in poverty
• Indian national rural employment guarantee
programmes providing a legal guarantee for
employment to adult members of any rural
household at the statutory minimum wage. This has
provided 40 million people with public sector work
• Empresas Recuperadas in Argentina based on
workplace decision making in which workers
themselves agree on choices (production methods,
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customer care, division of labour, etc).
Way forward
• Comprehensive policy framework that will make
employment central to national economic and
social policies and to international development
strategies.
The aim should be to promote decent
employment in which ILS and workers’
fundamental rights go hand in hand with job
creation, thus simultaneously promoting
employment growth and quality of work.
Way forward
• Use of normative instruments (continued):
– Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122), and Employment
Policy Recommendation, 1964 (No. 122).
– Employment Policy (Supplementary Provisions) Recommendation, 1984
(No. 169).
– Employment Promotion and Protection against Unemployment
Convention, 1988 (No.168), and Employment Promotion and Protection
against Unemployment recommendation, 1988 (No. 176)
– Employment Service Convention, 1948 (No. 88), 2 and Employment
Service Recommendation, 1948 (No. 83);
– Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1997 (No. 181), and Private
Employment Agencies Recommendation, 1997 (No. 188).
– Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises
and Social Policy, 1977 (amended 2000).
Way forward
• Expanding the “social economy”. The social
economy includes cooperatives and other
businesses with primarily social objectives –
where surpluses are principally reinvested rather
than being driven by the need to maximize profit
for shareholders and owners.