Resources on employment
March 05, 2025
The international discussion on the changing nature of jobs and employment is taking place on many levels. The table here contains a number of institutional reports, research papers and other sources that The Broker’s editors have found useful in preparing the Employment Dossier. We hope that this overview can help you dig deeper into the subject.
The list is divided in three categories: 1) International organizations and institutional reports, 2) Research papers, and 3) Other sources such as media and organizations.
Table 1. International organizations and institutional reports
| Title | Author/Institution | Year |
| Global Employment Trends 2014. Risk of a jobless recovery? | International Labour Organization | 2014 |
| Global Employment Trends 2013: Recovering from a second jobs dip | International Labour Organization | 2013 |
|
Understanding the Relationship between Economic Growth, Employment and Poverty Reduction (pdf) | Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development | 2009 |
| Global Employment Trends for Youth 2013. Informal, poorly paid and unemployed: The reality of work for most youth in developing countries. | International Labour Organization | 2013 |
| Vulnerable employment and poverty on the rise, Interview with International Labour Organization chief of Employment Trends Unit | International Labour Organization | 2010 |
| World of Work Report 2008 - Income inequalities in the age of financial globalization | International Labour Organization | 2008 |
| Global Wage Report 2012-13: Wages and Equitable Growth | International Labour Organization | 2013 |
| World Development Report 2013: Jobs | World Bank | 2012 |
| Employment Outlook 2013 | Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development | 2013 |
| Better Life Index. Jobs | Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development | 2013 |
| Global Development Debate: Jobs and Opportunities for All | World Bank Institute | 2011 |
| Institutions, Governance and Policy Space: Redesigning the International Economic Architecture for Development | United Nations Research Institute for Social Development | 2013 |
| The Labour Markets of Emerging Economies: Has growth translated into more and better jobs? | International Labour Organization: Sandrine Cazes and Sher Verick (eds.) | 2013 |
| Policy Priorities for International Trade and Jobs | Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development | 2013 |
| Trade growth and jobs (pdf) | Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development | 2013 |
| Informal is Normal? Towards more and better jobs in developing countries | Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development | 2009 |
| Informality and Informal Employment (pdf) | Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development: Huitfeldt, Jütting and Jütting (eds.) | 2009 |
| The Role of Employment and Labour Markets in the Fight against Poverty | Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development: Ernst & Berg (eds.) | 2009 |
| Job Quality - It's not just about having a job | Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development | 2013 |
| Don't waste the crisis: Critical perspectives for a new economic model | International Labour Organization | 2010 |
| Rural Labour Statistics | International Labour Organization | 2013 |
| AfDB Economic Brief | African Development Bank | |
| Connecting to Work: How information and communication technologies could help expand employment opportunities |
The World Bank ICT Sector Unit | 2013 |
| Labor Markets in Developing Countries Remain Resilient amidst Declining Growth | World Bank | 2013 |
| Meeting the challenge of precarious work: A workers ’ agenda (pdf) | International Labour Organization / International Journal of Labour Research | 2013 |
| Panorama Social de América Latina 2012 (pdf) | United Nations and United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean | 2012 |
| Perspectivas económicas de América Latina 2014. Logística y competitividad para el desarrollo (pdf). | Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Development Bank of Latin America | 2013 |
| Structural Change & Employment in a Globalizing World: Creating Jobs for all? (pdf). | United Nations Development Programme: Angela Lusigi (ed.) | 2013 |
| Trade and Employment: From Myths to Facts | International labour Organization | 2013 |
| Green jobs: towards decent work in a sustainable low-carbon world | United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) | 2008 |
| Growth and Employment in the Post-2015 Agenda: Messages from a global consultation. | United Nations Development Group | 2013 |
| The least developed countries report 2013. Growth with employment for inclusive and sustainable development. Overview | United Nations Conference on Trade and Development | 2013 |
| Working Time Around the World. Trends in working hours, laws and policies in a global comparative perspective (pdf). | International Labor Office: Lee, Sangheon, Deirdre McCann and Jon C. Messenger (eds.) | 2007 |
| From Precarious Work to Decent Work: outcome document to the workers’ symposium on policies and regulations to combat precarious employment (pdf) | International Labour Organization | 2012 |
| Employment and Economic class in the Developing world (pdf) | International Labour Organization: Kapsos, Steven and Evangelia Bourmpoula | 2013 |
| World Economic Outlook. Transitions and tensions | International Monetary Fund | 2013 |
| Youth and Labour Markets in Africa. A critical review of literature (pdf) | Agence Française de Développement Cling, Gubert, Nordman, Robilliard | 2007 |
| Globalization and informal jobs in developing countries, A joint study of the International Labour Office and the Secretariat of the World Trade Organization (pdf) | International Labour Office and the Secretariat of the World Trade Organization: Bacchetta, Marc, Ekkehard Ernst, Juana P. Bustamante | 2009 |
| Private Sector Solutions for Development: Job Creation | International Finance Corporation | 2013 |
| Jobs for Growth and Growth for Jobs | World Economic Forum | 2013 |
| Africa at work: Job creation and inclusive growth | McKinsey Global Institute | 2012 |
| The world at work: Jobs, pay, and skills for 3.5 billion people | McKinsey Global Institute | 2012 |
| African Economic Outlook 2012 SPECIAL THEME: Promoting Youth Employment | African Economic Outlook | 2012 |
| The end of an era: What comes after financialization and what will be the consequences for labour? in Don’t Waste the Crisis, Critical Perspectives for a New Economic Model. pdf | International Labour Organization: Ernst, Ekkehard | 2010 |
| Africa at work: Job creation and inclusive growth | McKinsey Global Institute: Fine, D., van Wamelen, A., et al | 2012 |
Table 2. Research papers
| Title | Author/Institution | Year |
| Global Labour Column | Corporate Strategy and Industrial Development (CSID) research programme at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa | 2009-2013 |
| How Has The Globalization of Labor Affected the Labor Income Share in Advanced Countries | Jaumotte, F. and I. Tytell | 2007 |
| Demographic shifts transform the global workforce | C. Buck Luce (EY) | 2011 |
| Capital's Grabbing Hand? A Cross-Country/Cross-Industry Analysis of the Decline of the Labour Share | Bessanini, A. and T. Manfredi | 2012 |
| Capital Account Openness' and the Labour Share Income, Cambridge Journal of Economics, vol. 31, n.3 , 423-443 | Jayadev, A | 2007 |
| The declining Labor Share of Income (pdf), Human development Reports Research paper 2010/36, New York, UNDP | Rodriguez and Jayadev | 2010 |
|
How the New Poverty Agenda Neglected Social and Employment Policies in Africa Journal of Human Development and Capabilities: A Multi-Disciplinary Journal for People-Centered Development, 11:1, pp. 37 - 55 | Mkandawire, T. | 2010 |
| Employability of Offshore Service Workers in the Philippines: opportunities for upward labour mobility or dead-end jobs? In: Work, Employment and Society, Vol. 27 (5), pp. 823-841 | Beerepoot, N. and M. Hendriks | 2013 |
| The Concept of Employability (pdf), : Urban Studies, Vol. 42 (2), pp. 197-219 | McQuaid, R. and C. Lindsay | 2005 |
| Labour and the Challenges of Globalization: What Prospects for Transnational Solidarity? | Bieler, A. | 2008 |
| Moving from Precarious Employment to Decent Work | Evans, J. and E. Gibb | 2009 |
| La précarité est aujourd'hui partout | Bourdieu, P. | 1997 |
| European Labour. Political and Ideological Crisis in an Increasingly More Authoritarian European Union | Wahl, Asbjørn | 2014 |
| The Labor Share Question in China | Qi, Hao | 2014 |
| Understanding the Relationship between Economic Growth, Employment and Poverty Reduction (pdf) | Hull, Katy | 2009 |
| A ‘Marshall Plan’ for Africa’s employment challenge | Elumelu, Tony O. | 2014 |
| Innovation and Employment The Oxford Handbook of Innovation. Ed. Fagerberg, J., D. Mowery and R. Nelson | Pianta, Mario | 2009 |
|
RISING WAGES: HAS CHINA LOST ITS GLOBAL LABOR ADVANTAGE? Pacific Economic Review Volume 15, Issue 4, pages 482–504, October 2010 |
Tao Yang, Dennis, Vivian Weijia Chen and Ryan Monarch | |
| Why does trade liberalisation raise wage inequality worldwide? | Epifani, Paolo and Gino Gancia | 2008 |
| Recent Productivity Developments in the World Economy: An Overview from The Conference Board Total Economy Database. (pdf) | Chen, Vivian, Abhay Gupta, Andre Therrien, Gad Levanon and Bart van Ark | |
| Globalizing Labor. In Geographies of Globalization. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell Pp, 198-227 | Herod, Andrew | 2009 |
| Is it Labor’s Turn to Globalize? Twenty-first Century Opportunities and Strategic Responses. Global Labour Journal 1 (3) 352-379 | Evans, Peter | 2010 |
| Globalization and the Labour Movement: Challenges and Responses. (pdf) Global Labour Journal 1 (2): 218-232 | Munck, Ronald | 2010 |
| The ILO: An Agency for Globalization? (pdf) New Political Economy 15 (2) 307-318; | Standing, Guy | 2010 |
| ReflecT Leading international research on flexibility and labour market dynamics combined with security for workers and social cohesion | Tilburg University | |
| Recurrent poverty: the impact of family and labour market changes (pdf) | Tomlinson, Mark | 2010 |
| The economics of the Arab Spring (pdf), World Development, May 2013, vol 45, pp. 296-313 | Malik, Adeel, Bassem Awadallah | 2013 |
| Africa's economic growth from a labour perspective: selected decent work indicators, Leiden: African Studies Center. | Vlaminck,Z, U. Oberst, A.H.M. Leliveld, M.M.A. Kaag, W. Baah-Boateng, S. Maher, N. de Vink | 2013 |
| Labour Markets Trends, Financial Globalization and the current crisis in Developing Countries (pdf) | Van der Hoeven, Rolph (UN DESA) | 2010 |
| Precarious Work, Insecure Workers: Employment Relations in Transition (pdf). American Sociological Review, 74(1): 1-22. | Kalleberg, A. | 2009 |
| The Precariat: a view from the South (pdf). Third World Quarterly, (34:5), p. 751. | Munch, R | 2013 |
| Flexicurity: a conceptual critique | Burroni, Luigi and Maarten Keune | 2010 |
| Precarious, Informalizing, and Flexible Work: Transforming Concepts and Understandings. American Behavioral Scientist, 57(3): 290. | Arnold, D. and J.R. Bongiovi | 2012 |
| The Oxford companion to the economics of Africa , Oxford : Oxford University Press | Aryeetey, Ernest et al. (eds.) | 2012 |
| Defining the precariat: A class in the making (pdf), Eurozine | Standing, Guy | 2013 |
| Panorama de las condiciones de trabajo en América Latina. Nueva Sociedad No 232, marzo-abril de 2011 | Weller, Jürgen | 2011 |
| Jóvenes y el desafío de vivir en contextos de desigualdad y diversidad. Crisis de las oportunidades de participación educativa y laboral en América Latina. | Aparicio, Pablo Christian | 2010 |
| Who Is Hit Hardest during a Financial Crisis? The Vulnerability of Young Men and Women to Unemployment in an Economic Downturn. IZA Discussion Paper No. 4359. | Verick, Sher | 2009 |
| Growing fast, transforming slowly. The case for economic transformation (pdf) ACET | Ansu, Yaw, Mina Baliamoune | 2013 |
| The beneficial international spillovers of labour market reforms | Vox-EU | 2010 |
| THE PRIMARY, SECONDARY, TERTIARY AND QUATERNARY SECTORS OF THE ECONOMY | Kenessey, Zoltan | 2005 |
| Labor Markets in the Global Economy: How to Prevent Rising Wage Gaps and Unemployment (pdf) | Gundlach, Erich, Peter Nunnenkamp | 1997 |
| Globalization, structural change, and productivity growth (pdf) | McMillan, Margaret, Dani Rodrik | 2011 |
| The Tertiary Sector Is Going to Dominate the World Economy; Should We Worry? | Sultan, M. | 2008 |
| Resource Centre Employment in China. | China Labour Bulletin | 2014 |
| The Informal Sector Economy as a Global Trend (pdf) | Breman, Jan | 2011 |
| Global Prospects for Full Employment | Club of Rome: G. Jacobs & I. Slaus | 2011 |
| Full employment abandoned. Shifting Sands and Policy Failures. Edwald Elgar Publishing. | William Mitchell and Joan Muyskens | 2008 |
| Globalization: The great unbundling(s). | Economic Council of Finland: Baldwin, R. E. | 2006 |
| The offshore services value chain: upgrading trajectories in developing countries’, Int. J. Technological Learning, Innovation and Development, Vol. 4, Nos. 1/2/3, pp.206–234 | Fernandez-Stark, K., Bamber, P. & Gereffi, G. | 2011 |
| Assessing the Job Polarization Explanation of Growing Wage Inequality. Working Paper 295 | Economic Policy Institute: Mishel, L., Schmitt, J., and Shierholz, H. | 2013 |
| Skills, Tasks and Technologies: Implications for Employment and Earnings pdf. | MIT: Acemoglu, D. and Autor, D. | 2010 |
| Innovation and Employment,’ in The Oxford Handbook of Innovation. Ed. J. Fagerberg, D. Mowery and R. Nelson. Oxford: Oxford University Press. | Pianta, M | 2005 |
| The Education Bias of ‘Trade Liberalization’ and Wage Inequality in Developing Countries. Working paper 443. pdf. | Institute of Social Studies (ISS); Mamoon, D. and Mansoob Murshed, S. | 2007 |
| Don’t Blame the Robots Assessing the Job Polarization Explanation of Growing Wage Inequality | Economic Policy Institute: Mishel, L., Shierholz, H., Schmitt, J. | 2013 |
| The Second Machine Age Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies. WW Norton | Brynjolfsson, E. and McAfee, A. | 2014 |
| Are Full Employment and Social Cohesion Possible Under Financialization?. Forum for Social Economics, 40 (2) | Argitis, G. and Michopoulou, S. | 2011 |
| A (Post-) Keynesian perspective on "financialisation,IMK Studies 01-2009 | IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute: Hein, E | 2009 |
| The Labour Markets of Emerging Economies: Has growth translated into more and better jobs? Palgrave Macmillan. | Sandrine, C. and Sher Verick | 2013 |
| Employer of Last Resort Policy and Feminist Economics: Social Provisioning and Socialization of Investment. Working Paper 56. | Center for Full Employment and Price Stability Working Paper Series (cFEPS): Todorova, Z. | 2009 |
| The Taxes-Drive-Money and Employer of Last Resort Approach to Government Policy.’ Journal of Economic and Social Policy, 5(1). | Kadmos, G., and O’Hara, P. | 2000 |
| Political Aspects of Buffer Stock Employment in E. Carlson and W.F. Mitchell (eds.), Achieving Full Employment, The Economic and Labour Relations Review, Supplement to Volume 12, 72-82. | Kriesler, P. and J. Halevi | 2001 |
Table 3. Other sources (media & interest groups)
| Global employment: What is the world employment rate? | Evans, Lisa (The Guardian) | 2011 |
| Jobless Growth In China? Employment Stats Say Recession Has Already Started. | Chang, Gordon G. (Forbes) | 2013 |
| Dixon, Patrick | ||
| Ranks of Working Poor Grow in Europe | Alderman, L. (The New York Times) | 2012 |
| ITUC Global Poll 2013 - Economic and Social Outlook | International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) | 2013 |
| Faltering Economy in China Dims Job Prospects for Graduates. | Bradsher, Keith and Sue-Lin Wong (The New york Times) | 2013 |
| Tackling the jobs crisis: new thinking from the World Bank and UNESCO. From poverty to power by Duncan Green. Oxfam blogs | Fuentes, Ricardo | 2012 |
| Trends in working time | European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) | 2011 |
| World Unemployment to Hit Record High in 2013: International Labour Organization. CNBC | Barnato, Katy | 2013 |
| Review of The Second Machine Age. | Pearlstein, S. (The Washington Post) | 2014 |
| Crisis? What Crisis? Financialization and the attack on employment. Keynote speech | Schiphorst, F. | 2009 |
| Jobless Growth In China? Employment Stats Say Recession Has Already Started. | Gordon, C.G. (Forbes) | 2013 |
| The Job Guarantee is a Progressive Vehicle for Change. | Mitchell, B. (Bill Mitchell-billy blog. Modern Monetary Theory…macroeconomic reality) | 2013 |
| Labour’s share lost | R.A. (The Economist) | 2013 |
Photo credit main picture: Entropy ≥ Mεmory.Crεatıvıty ² . . / Joël, Evelyñ, François, . . via Flickr
