This Note systematizes the economic evaluation of Jobs Investment Projects. It explains the limitations of past approaches that have regarded jobs only as a by-product of growth. It focuses on market failures that create a gap between the social and private return on investments and reduce the...

Over the recent past, Burkina Faso has registered solid economic growth and poverty levels have been lowered, suggesting that growth has been pro-poor. Yet, poverty remains widespread despite high levels of labor market participation and employment. In practice, life for many in the country...

With an estimated 724 million extreme poor people living in developing countries, and the world's demographics bifurcating into an older north and a younger south, there are substantial economic incentives and benefits for people to migrate. There are also important market and regulatory...

The Global Jobs Indicators Database (JOIN) provides information on labor market outcomes from countries across all income groups with a focus on low- and middle-income countries. The sources are in most cases Labor Force Surveys (LFSs), but other types of household surveys that include labor...

For more than a decade, South Africa has experienced falling labor force participation rates while maintaining relatively high unemployment rates, particularly among its youth. This paper examines the role of labor costs from the perspectives of employers and workers by combining information...

This note discusses policy options for managing the employment impacts of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis aimed at relief and restructuring. The note pays attention to the labor market and institutional context of most low and middle-income countries where informality is large and where...

This paper investigates the impacts of the economic shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the employment of different types of workers in developing countries. Employment outcomes are taken from a set of high-frequency phone surveys conducted by the World Bank and National Statistics Offices...