Introduction: Overview of the Volume

Jesus Felipe () and Rana Hasan
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Rana Hasan: Asian Development Bank

Chapter Chapter 1 in Labor Markets in Asia, 2006, pp 1-17 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract This volume addresses the most important problem that policy makers in developing Asia will face in the next few decades—that of generating employment for the huge labor force of the region.1 The phenomenal success measured in terms of GDP growth and poverty reduction in the last three decades, particularly in East and Southeast Asia, does not seem to have led to more and better employment, in the sense defined below. Some parts of Asia—mainly the newly industrialized economies of Hong Kong, China; Republic of Korea; Singapore; and Taipei, China—have done exceedingly well in employing their labor forces productively and in generating many “good jobs” (jobs that demand high skills and command high wages) in the industry and services sectors. But other parts of Asia have generally failed to do the same. In these other parts, labor markets continue to operate with considerable unemployment and underemployment. In South Asia, the movement of workers out of low-productivity employment in the agriculture sector has been protracted. Moreover, many of the new jobs outside agriculture in South Asia are in the informal sector and are not necessarily much better than those in agriculture. This is also true of many other subregions in Asia.

Keywords: Labor Market; Informal Sector; Employment Growth; Formal Sector; Social Protection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
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DOI: 10.1057/9780230627383_1

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