Back to Work: Growing with Jobs in Europe and Central Asia (Europe and Central Asia Reports)

Omar S. Arias et al

ISBN 10: 0821399101 / ISBN 13: 9780821399101

Editore: World Bank Group Publications 2014-01-30, 2014

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Codice articolo 6666-IUK-9780821399101

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Back to Work: Growing with Jobs in Europe and Central Asia (Europe and Central Asia Reports)
• Editore: World Bank Group Publications 2014-01-30
• Data di pubblicazione: 2014
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0821399101
• ISBN 13: 9780821399101
• Rilegatura: Paperback
• Condizione: New

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

What can be done to create more and better jobs in Europe and Central Asia? And should there be specific policies to help workers access those jobs? The authors of this book examine these questions through the lens of two contextual factors: the legacy of centralized planned economies and the mounting demographic pressures associated with rapid aging in some countries and soaring numbers of youth entering the workforce in others.The authors find the following:• Market reforms pay off, albeit with a lag, in terms of jobs and productivity.• A small fraction of superstar high-growth firms accounts for most of the new jobs created in the region.• Skills gaps hinder employment prospects, especially of youth and older workers, because of the inadequate response by the education and training systems to changes in the demand for skills.• Employment is hindered by high implicit taxes on formal work and barriers that affect especially women, minorities, youth, and older workers.• Low internal labor mobility prevents labor relocation to places with greater job creation potential.Back to Work: Growing with Jobs in Europe and Central Asia asserts that to get more people back to work and to grow with jobs, countries, especially late reformers, need to regain the momentum for economic and institutional reforms that existed before the economic crisis. They should lay the fundamentals to create jobs for all workers, by pushing reforms to create the enabling environment for existing firms to grow, become more productive, or exit the market and let new firms emerge and succeed (or fail fast and cheap). They should also implement policies to support workers so that those workers are prepared to take on the new jobs being created, by having the right skills and incentives, unhindered access to work, and being ready to relocate.

Product Description

Over the last decade, significant global and regional forces including changes in technology, trade patterns, and business practices, with a steady shift in value added production and employment toward knowledge-intensive activities and services such as finance, the hospitality industry, and the retail trade, have been affecting the production and occupational structures of most developed economies. Many countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia have also experienced ongoing exposure to international product and labor markets, some via integration with the European Union (EU), and in general experiencing more international competition and labor migration. The acceleration of growth, the easy access to credit during the financial boom, and improvements in business and labor regulations in some countries boosted labor demand. On the supply side, key factors in some countries included shifts in labor force participation rates, cross-border migration, and changes in social benefits that may have affected work incentives. With the sudden shock of the 2008 international financial crisis and its prolonged after-effects, all countries in the region are being forced to reassess their position in the international checkerboard, also in light of looming demographic trends and competing social demands. All countries will have to consider reforms to improve the quality of the business climate, make labor markets more competitive, modernize the public sector, deepen financial development, and increase integration in global markets are a necessary condition for positive and sustained employment creation. These efforts will have to be comprehensive and sustained for the payoff to materialize, as illustrated by the experience of the advanced reformers in the region. Moving along the modernization path will require further economic restructuring and labor reallocation, which can become a wasteful and inefficient process with significant short-term welfare losses among specific gro