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Study reveals informal employment curbs trade benefits for developing countries
14 Outubro 2009
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| Autorickshaw driver: most are informal workers [Photo: Deepak Gupta, CC-by-sa-2.0] | |
A high incidence of informal employment in the developing world suppresses countries' ability to benefit from trade according to a new study.
The joint study from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) focuses on the links between globalisation and informal employment. Informal employment is typically carried out by private, unregistered enterprises, which are not subject to national law or regulation, and which involve self-employed individuals or members of the same household.
The study reveals that informal employment is widespread in many developing countries and that as a result, thousands of workers are left on low incomes with almost no job security and no social protection. Levels of informality vary substantially across countries, ranging from 30 per cent in some Latin American countries to more than 80 per cent in certain sub-Saharan African and South Asian countries.
“The study confirms what we know from experience, that by promoting complementarity between decent work objectives and trade, financial and labour market policies, developing countries are much better placed to benefit from trade opening, advance the social dimension of globalisation, and to cope with the current crisis,” said ILO director-general Juan Somavia.
“Trade has contributed to growth and development worldwide. But this has not automatically translated in an improvement in the quality of employment. Trade opening needs proper domestic policies to create good jobs. This is all the more evident with the current crisis which has reduced trade and thrown thousands into informal jobs,” said WTO director-general Pascal Lamy.
The study suggests that trade reforms should be designed and implemented in an employment-friendly way, making the re-allocation of jobs more conducive to formal employment growth.
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