Book Review. World Employment 1995: An ILO Report
| Published date | 01 August 1996 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-162X(199608)16:3<287::AID-PAD875>3.0.CO;2-6 |
| Author | ROBERT CASTLEY |
| Date | 01 August 1996 |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, VOL.
16, 287-289 (1996)
Book
Reviews
WORLD EMPLOYMENT 1995: AN ILO REPORT
200
pp.
The ILO Report on ‘World Employment 1995’ (henceforth referred to as the Report) was
prepared in response to the growing worldwide concern over the problem of unemployment.
Unlike other studies, which have tended to focus on regional aspects of the problem, such as
unemployment in transitional economies, the OECD countries or the LDCs, this Report
adopts a more holistic approach. It shows how the linkages between the different regions are
major causal factors and therefore how possible solutions have to address the linkages.
The Report is much more than a review of the unemployment problem: it was designed to
‘offer ideas on national and international policies’ and therefore devotes more space to policy
proposals.
The Report is divided into five parts. The first examines globalization and employment. It
notes that gains from expanding world trade investment and output have been unevenly
distributed and that the social costs of implementing structural adjustment programmes are
often high. Nevertheless, it concludes that despite such problems, the potential benefits
outweigh the costs and goes on to recommend ‘continued globalization’ through trade
expansion (by implementing the Uruguay Round) and foreign direct investment through
promotion of multinational enterprises.
The second part examines the varied performance of employment growth in developing
countries, which it partly attributes to the rapid growth of export-led manufacturers and to
inflows of foreign investment in some countries. The Report recommends the adoption of
export-orientated and investment promotion policies. It also calls for higher investment in
human capital, innovative credit schemes to raise the productivity of small producers, and the
removal of obstacles to the promotion of the informal sector, which it sees as a major safety
net for the poor.
The third part describes the sharp falls in the transitional economies’ share of world trade
and inflows of foreign investment, both of which have contributed to mass unemployment.
To
overcome the unemployment crisis, the Report recommends a more ‘gradual’ approach to the
restructuring of the economy and industries and the strengthening of labour market policies
(such as redeployment and retraining measures). The fourth part is devoted to a review of the
possible causes of rising unemployment in the industrialized countries and concludes that the
fundamental cause is the international shift in trade, employment and technology. It discusses,
on the supply-side, such remedies as greater flexibility in the workforce and reforms of labour
market regulations and, on the demand-side, raising economic growth rates through macro-
economic policies. In the final part, the Report discusses the need to restore full employment
through co-operative international trade.
For those seriously interested in the global (and regional) unemployment problem, the
Report is required reading, because
it
neatly describes the many facets of the unemployment
problem, analyses the major causes and discusses possible remedial policies. It is the most
comprehensive study of unemployment prepared in recent years. There is much
to
interest the
reader, from the problems of attracting inward investment to labour market regulation, from
the growth of poverty in the transitional economies to
US
decline in productivity, from wage
bargaining in Austria to reforms of unemployment benefit systems, from the benefits of
promoting the informal sector to labour standards. There are, as one would expect, good up-
to-date data, which are well presented. Each chapter is well signposted, with a detailed
contents page linked to sub-headings, which makes for easy reference. Each of the five parts
is
0
1996
by John Wiley
&
Sons, Ltd.
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