The World Employment and Social Outlook is the ILO’s new flagship report on world of work issues. Exploring the inter-connected nature of macroeconomic policies on the one hand, and employment and social outcomes on the other, it analyses which policy combinations are most effective in delivering high employment and balanced incomes. The publication also provides readers with the most up-to-date global as well as regional labour market and social indicators.

Preface .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 5 Acknowledgements .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Executive summary .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 1. Emerging patterns of employment: Global and regional trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 17 Introduction .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. . . . . . . . . . 17 A. The relationship between employment and economic growth .. . .. . . .. .. . . . . . . . 17 B. A diversified labour market .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 28 C. Conclusions and structure of report .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 32 Appendix A. Country and regional groupings .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. . . 35 Appendix B. Estimating the global wage gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. . . . 36 References .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 2. Employment patterns, poverty and income inequality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Introduction .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 39 A. Incomes across different types of employment .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 39 B. Changing work patterns and poverty .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 C. Changing work patterns and income inequality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 D. Concluding remarks: Lessons from country experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Appendix A. Data sources and coverage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Appendix B. Sources of income, data limitations and methodologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Appendix C. Figures and decomposition tables .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 65 References .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 3. Social protection coverage across employment patterns .. .. . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . 73 Introduction .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 A. Legal social protection coverage by status in employment .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 73 B. Social protection coverage in practice: Implementation gaps . . . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . 83 C. Concluding remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 95 Appendix A. Definitions and methods .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 96 Appendix B. Decomposition of total gap in pension coverage . . . . . . . . .. . . .. . . . . . . 99 Appendix C. Effective pension coverage by contributory schemes by status in employment . . 100 Appendix D. Indicators of effective coverage for old-age pension benefits, global estimates: Affiliation to contributory pension schemes by status and employment patterns .. . . . . . 103 Appendix E. Affiliation to old-age pension schemes by status and employment patterns: Sources of data . . 104 References .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 4. Labour regulation and employment patterns .. . . . . .. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 A. Labour regulation over time .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 B. The impact of labour regulation on labour market and social outcomes . . . . . . . . 118 C. Concluding remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 121 Appendix A. Methodology and coding algorithms used to construct the CBR-LRI dataset . . 122 Appendix B. Methodological approach to the econometric analysis .. . . .. . . . . . . . . . 126 References .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 5. Changes in global production patterns and impacts on enterprises and employment . . 131 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 A. Global production patterns and organization of work across borders . . . . . . . . . . . .132 B. The impact of global supply chains on employment patterns and enterprises . . . . . 140 C. Concluding remarks: Policy considerations for global supply chains . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Appendix A. The ILO’s estimates of jobs related to global supply chains . . . . . . . . . . 150 Appendix B. Global supply chain participation and labour markets: A sectoral analysis . .153 References .. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Recent publications . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161