Mapping territorial labour-related well-being inequalities in Ecuador: A multivariate geometric approach

Bill Jonathan Serrano Orellana

PLOS ONE, 2026, vol. 21, issue 8, 1-34

Abstract: This article examines the territorial structure and post-pandemic evolution of labour-related well-being inequalities across Ecuador’s 24 provinces between 2021 and 2024. Using official provincial data from the National Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment Survey (ENEMDU), we constructed an integrated set of eleven indicators capturing employment quantity, job quality, labour income, monetary and multidimensional poverty, and youth labour market exclusion (NEET population aged 15–24). Methodologically, the study adopts a geometric multivariate approach that combines annual HJ-biplots with Partial Triadic Analysis (PTA). This approach allows provinces and indicators to be represented jointly, annual labour-well-being structures to be compared, and a compromise configuration to be extracted that summarises the average post-pandemic profile of the Ecuadorian labour market. The results reveal a stable territorial gradient of labour well-being driven primarily by job quality and income rather than by open unemployment rates. Three persistent provincial clusters emerge: an Amazonian core characterised by cumulative disadvantages in multidimensional poverty, underemployment, and low labour income; an Andean-coastal group with higher levels of formal employment, adequate jobs, and earnings; and an intermediate set of provinces with fragile labour profiles marked by underemployment and youth vulnerability. The PTA confirms a high degree of similarity across annual structures and slow-moving adjustment dynamics, with no evidence of territorial convergence during the period analysed. In addition, the youth NEET indicator defines a distinct axis of labour-related vulnerability, closely associated with unemployment and underemployment but only partially aligned with poverty measures. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of incorporating employment quality and territorial perspectives into assessments of social well-being and underscore the need for labour policies with an explicit territorial and generational focus to address persistent labour-well-being disparities in developing economies.

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0343199

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0343199

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