Jobs, Justice and Development: A Review of Working Hard, Working Poor

摘要

The world is facing a grave employment challenge. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 397 million employed individuals were living in extreme poverty in 2011 - they had jobs but were still surviving on less than US$ 1.25 a day per person (ILO, 2013). Informal and precarious employment, where workers face a high degree of uncertainty and lack basic social protections, remain structural features of labour markets worldwide. In many countries, these kinds of jobs account for the largest share of economic opportunities available. This makes those who are not currently counted among the world's poorest vulnerable to shocks that may one day throw them into poverty. Moreover, these statistics do not reflect the situation of the nearly 200 million people who were jobless in 2012 (ibid.).