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Articles related to: employment
A digital network for entrepreneurs across Africa
Ben White , Miguel Heilbron | 20 November 2024Innovative early stage ventures that potentially have a high social and environmental impact, but require less than €1 million in capital are the most difficult segment of the SME pipeline to reach. Yet their potential for growth is immense.
read moreFilling the skill gaps
Karina Ufert | 18 November 2024Skill gaps and effective pairing of education with labour market needs remain one of the most pressing obstacles for SME development in Africa.
read moreYoung entrepreneurs in rural Africa as drivers for job creation
Paula Nagler , Wim Naudé | 21 November 2024Can Africa’s rural economy create enough jobs for predominantly young job-seekers?
read moreLooking beyond success stories
Klaartje Jaspers | November 13, 2024To give local and international businesses a new role in assuring inclusive growth in Africa, the African Studies Centre and the Netherlands African Business Council organized the two-day Africa Works! 2014 conference. They invited 740 representat...
read moreDoing business in Africa: do the poor profit?
Annemarie van de Vijsel | November 12, 2024When the Dutch private sector is involved in development in Africa, a dilemma may arise. The Dutch government claims that businesses could have a positive impact on local economic development on the continent in the longer term. But do their activ...
read moreSupport for SMEs: lucrative or futile?
Roland Michelitsch | 13 November 2024Assistance to small and medium enterprises only makes sense if it addresses the key constraints for SMEs and allows them to grow into larger and more productive enterprises.
read moreWhy private equity boosts developing economies
Matthijs de Bruijn , Som Toohey | 12 November 2024Four main characteristics of the private equity model are crucial to drive SME development in developing countries.
read moreIt’s not about formalization
Jann Lay | 28 October 2024How informal micro and small enterprises can (if they should at all) make the transition into formal enterprises and how this would affect their growth and employment structure
read moreHigh stakes: African asylum seeker entrepreneurs in Israel
Ilana Pinshaw | 28 October 2024Of 48,000 African migrants in Israel, the majority are asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea. If it is done right, entrepreneurship can play a vital role in integrating these refugees into Israeli society and responding to market niches.
read moreWhy reducing inequality is an economic imperative
Stewart Lansley | 27 October 2024The shift from wages to profits has led to an increase in inequality over the last three decades.
read moreThe Birth, Life and Death of SMEs in Rural Africa
Paula Nagler , Wim Naudé | 20 October 2024Entrepreneurship is ubiquitous in rural Africa. But why do rural households operate non-farm enterprises? How productive are they? And why do they exit the market?
read moreThe rise of finance undermines employment growth
Ken-Hou Lin | 14 October 2024The stagnation in labour demand in the US is linked to the rise of finance. Strategies to encourage long-term employment growth must be found in that direction too.
read moreCan "Massive Open Online Courses" help improve employability?
Wipada Panichpathom , Clara Franco , Dilnoza Nigmonova | 10 October 2024Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a new learning phenomenon in the world of higher education and digital technology. Especially for developing countries, they are portrayed as a great opportunity for free education, boosting the employabilit...
read moreWorkers' organizations and SME-growth: A misrecognised link
Zjos Vlaminck | 06 October 2024While the roles of trade unions and informal workers’ organizations are little understood, these networks can play a significant role in stimulating SME growth on a micro, meso and macro level.
read moreThe bumpy road to improve women entrepreneurship
Alia El Mahdi | 07 October 2024Egypt has invested in its female labour force since the 1960s. Yet women-led businesses remain rare. Alia El Mahdi provides insight into the underlying challenges and gives policy recommendations for the effective promotion of female entrepreneurs.
read moreComing full-circle: migrant and remigrant entrepreneurs
Gea Wijers | 07 October 2024Migrants and remigrants are especially likely to start their own businesses. But do they have the skills and knowledge that will allow them to access market niches and contribute to local economies?
read moreManagers through classroom training?
Ariela Alpert , Sarah Craig , Lucia Sanchez | 06 October 2024Business training programs are a popular tool used by policy-makers to promote SME growth. However, recent evidence suggests that these programs rarely lead to firm growth or job creation. What do we know about how to effectively support SME devel...
read moreIt’s not the missing middle, it’s our missing memory
Klaas Molenaar | 02 October 2024After microfinance, the ‘missing middle’ is the new buzzword for SME development experts. Klaas Molenaar recommends to take a look into the history of microfinance to question the hype.
read moreInformal workers' associations could boost SME growth
Roger Tsafack Nanfosso | 01 October 2024Trade unions in Africa have struggled to effectively include informal workers. In their stead, informal worker's associations have taken over.
read moreIt's not just the economy, stupid
Caroline Reeg , Markus Loewe | 01 October 2024Upgrading a micro enterprise to a small or medium-sized business requires more than a good business environment.
read moreHow can entrepreneurship really make an impact?
Yannick du Pont | 29 September 2024In conflict-affected societies, entrepreneurship promotion plays a crucial role in harvesting young people's innovative potential and in stirring economic growth on a national level.But what do those entrepreneurs really need?
read moreThe pervasive and unfair costs of trade on workers
Íñigo Verduzco Gallo | 29 September 2024International trade can contribute to the creation of more and better jobs but not always, not for everyone, and not everywhere. Thirty years after the beginning of a global push for liberalization we are finally starting to understand the real co...
read moreTrade openness still matters
Noel Gaston | 29 September 2024While the long-term benefits of freer trade for the domestic labour market seem indisputable, it is politically contestable over the short- and medium-run.
read moreAn army of ants
Will Mutua | 24 September 2024There is no limit to human capacity for innovation – the bedrock of entrepreneurship. Only three basic pillars can lay the foundation for sustainable business growth.
read moreTTIP: don’t mention the job losses
John Hilary | 22 September 2024The TTIP will lead to at least a million job losses and threaten labour standards in US and EU.
read moreJob gains from TTIP would be minimal
Dean Baker | 22 September 2024The impact of the TTIP on employment in Europe and the US would be minimal, or even negative.
read moreTTIP should help, not hinder, workers
James Hoffa | 22 September 2024US citizens have found themselves on the short end of the stick too many times to believe that the TTIP will create more jobs.
read moreThe opposing forces of TTIP
Patrick Messerlin | 22 September 2024The bilateral setting of the TTIP makes its outcome subject to two specific opposing forces.
read moreTTIP also affects developing countries
Owen Tudor | 22 September 2024The implications of TTIP for employment are uncertain for the EU and US, but also for developing countries.
read moreEPAs: can we expect more job creation?
Isabelle Ramdoo | 22 September 2024EPAs can be a good launchpad to foster more productive employment in Africa, but should not be an end in itself.
read moreUnleashing those constrained gazelles
Michael Grimm | 11 September 2024SMEs can and need to play an important role in securing and creating new jobs, if development programmes revert their focus to job creation with the help of effective trainings and restructured access to finance.
read moreRaising management standards in Africa
Micheline Goedhuys | 11 September 2024The inability of African firms to implement management practices that conform to basic international standards is a barrier to enter global markets, depressing their productivity and employment creation potential. An agenda to raise manageme...
read moreNew technologies for SME job creation
Stephen Haggard | 11 September 2024Communications-based digital industries have a special model for surviving the familiar SME-killing challenges. Embracing technologies such as the cloud, virtualization, and instant cloning of service platforms, could digital enterprises become th...
read moreFive steps that create inclusive growth through SMEs
Tara Sabre Collier | 11 September 2024Despite being the world’s second fastest-growing region, Africa’s challenge is translating this growth into broad-based improvements in well-being. SMEs development is key to change this.
read moreBoosting Employment in Small and Medium Enterprises
September 10, 2024How can SMEs become more productive and viable engines of inclusive growth in developing countries? Academics and practitioners provide answers.
read moreThe vanishing employment relationship
John Grahl | 20 August 2025Specific policy is needed to respond to the loss of social control over employment.
read moreVolatile international capital flows in emerging economies
Annina Kaltenbrunner | 18 August 2025Volatile capital flows have maintained, if not exacerbated, the vulnerability of developing and emerging countries and affected domestic productivity and employment.
read moreExcessive debt endangers real economy firms and workers
Eileen Appelbaum | 12 August 2025By their excessive use of debt, private equity companies in the US increase the risk of bankruptcy of real economy companies they acquire.
read moreInternational trade as a promoter of employment
David Cheong | 12 August 2025International trade is a force of structural change and productive transformation and can therefore promote employment.
read moreThe diffusion of Africa’s ‘productivity islands’
Alan Gelb , Christian J. Meyer , Vijaya Ramachandran | 11 August 2025Although Sub-Saharan Africa is increasingly attractive to investors, structural transformation and formal job growth remain slow. Industrial surveys in many countries show that some highly productive firms co-exist with many low-productivity busin...
read moreThe next industrial revolution
Julie Madigan | 29 July 2025Changes in the global economy and in technology influence employment in the manufacturing sector, especially by requiring new skills.
read morePre-distribution and monetary policy: stabilizing employment and growth
Thomas Aubrey | 22 July 2025In an increasingly globalized world which places downward pressure on nominal wages, monetary policy should permit the rewards of productivity growth to be passed on to workers in the form of falling prices. Targeting nominal income growth to equa...
read morePutting productivity first
Robert D. Atkinson | 21 July 2025Evidence shows that technological change and productivity growth do not only destroy jobs in Europe and the US, but also create them.
read moreThe fragile balance between employment and the environment
Rob Vos | 14 July 2025Diversification of employment opportunities into non-farm, non-mining activities will be critical to safeguarding Ecuador’s rainforest. However, this is easier said than done.
read moreGlobal labour in crisis
Vera Borsboom | 02 July 2025Developing a stable and decent labour market is a matter of willingness and making choices.
read moreInequality, employment and economic growth in Africa
Annemarie van de Vijsel | 26 June 2025The bright picture of Africa’s economy is that it is growing and that inequality is declining. However, as Stefano Prato of the Society for International Development (SID) said at the beginning of a panel session at the EADI conference, not all Af...
read more‘Don’t turn to protectionism’
Evert-jan Quak | 26 June 2025During the EADI conference, The Broker had an exclusive interview with Branko Milanovic, Professor at the City University New York and economist for the World Bank specialized in inequality.
read moreInequality and the post-2015 agenda
Sara Murawski | 25 June 2025Apart from being a media partner at the EADI conference The Broker also took part, presenting a panel on inequality and the post-2015 agenda. During a session of almost two hours the panel provided an update on global inequality trends, based on t...
read moreInequality and the Middle Classes
June 23, 2025Follow The Broker at the EADI general conference “Responsible Development in a Polycentric World: Inequality, Citizenship and the Middle Classes”.
read moreStrengthen labour market policies along flexicurity principles
Teodora Tchipeva | 01 July 2025The adverse effects of increased economic integration on job quality can be mitigated by flexicurity policies.
read moreThe flipside of Piketty’s analysis
Paul de Beer | 20 May 2025Piketty largely ignores what the concentration of wealth means for decision-making on economic development. We should focus on distributing wealth, for example by making employees shareholders of their own companies.
read morePolicy, not technology, is behind declines in job security
Jo Michell | 20 May 2025Inequality and declining job quality have been driven mainly by government policies, so reforming policy is now needed.
read moreCreating jobs by investing in people
Erik Bjørsted | 13 May 2025Europe has to start investing in people instead of destroying its growth potential if it wants to create more and better jobs.
read moreIndia’s experience with the right to work
Jetti A. Oliver | 12 May 2025Making people producers of goods is strategic for growth and development.
read moreHalf full or half empty?
Arthur Muliro | 12 May 2025What are the challenges, what are the options regarding youth unemployment in Africa?
read moreSecretariat for the Knowledge Platform on Development Policies
07 May 2025The African Studies Centre (ASC), the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS/EUR) and globalization think tank The Broker are excited to announce that they will be hosting the Secretariat fo...
read moreAn employers’ view on job creation
Brent H. Wilton | 06 May 2025The private sector is the primary generator of sustainable employment, so governments need to work to ensure that the environment for growth is promoted and maintained.
read moreEurope needs structural skills-oriented labour market reforms
Jörg Peschner | 24 April 2025With a demographic shift ahead, Europe has to increase productivity and employment rates and structurally reform the labour market.
read moreFrom disposable labour to a different globalization
Annemarie van de Vijsel, Evert-jan Quak | April 24, 2025The central theme of The Broker Day 2014 on 14 April was employment and inequality, and the structural macroeconomic problems underlying them. The main speaker was Minister of Social Affairs and Employment and deputy prime minister Lodewijk Assche...
read moreFrom ‘black recession’ towards green growth
Béla Galgóczi | 17 April 2025More green investment can stimulate growth and employment in a crisis-ridden Europe, and reverse recent negative trends in the climate change mitigation progress.
read moreThe labour market as a mechanism of social inclusion
Oscar Roberto Silva | 11 April 2025The following proposal is aimed at employment creation in the light of the alarming indices of labour market exclusion from which different parts of the world suffer.
read moreThe risk of a jobless recovery in Southern Europe
Javier Andrés | 31 March 2025The key to avoiding the risk of a jobless recovery in Southern Europe lies in the combination of wage flexibility and human capital accumulation.
read moreRural non-farm business in Africa: where are the jobs?
Paula Nagler , Wim Naudé | 31 March 2025Although governments and development agencies see farming as an important engine for job creation, rural non-farm businesses do not seem to generate enough work.
read moreFull employment: moral necessity and achievable goal
Garry Jacobs , Ivo Šlaus | 26 March 2025Recognizing employment as a fundamental human right is the most important policy to promote full employment.
read moreThe challenge of employment generation under globalization
Benjamin Selwyn | 26 March 2025The activities of labouring classes show that establishing a system that puts their interests before corporate profits is possible.
read moreDividend or disaster: youth unemployment in Africa
Kate Meagher | 26 March 2025It is time for development economists to look beyond the stylized facts to the dire realities of Africa’s frustrated youth and burgeoning informal economies.
read moreHelp wanted: new mindsets for fighting unemployment
John W. Budd | 26 March 2025New mindsets are needed that recognize the deep importance of work and therefore the true depth of the jobs crisis.
read moreBoosting inclusive employment through impact sourcing
Chacko Kannothra , Stephan Manning | 18 March 2025Impact sourcing is a promising means to enhance employment and training opportunities for the poor and underprivileged.
read moreCreating more decent work for women
Sher Verick | 17 March 2025Employment is a critical path to women’s economic empowerment, but it is by no means a simple relationship.
read moreEliminating ‘job hunger’
Herman Knudsen | 13 March 2025Elements of the decent work agenda can improve employment conditions worldwide, but current neo-liberalist policies are counterproductive.
read moreEmployment
March 13, 2025The Broker has started an online debate and a live discussion on how to tackle employment issues and further addressing the policies needed for an employment-generated economic growth. Can solutions be found within the current economic model, or&n...;
read moreFocus on employment in economic strategies
Evert-jan Quak | March 12, 2025To solve the structural problems related to unemployment, a radical policy shift is needed. Innovation policies must focus on job-intensive sectors. Governments must curb free capital flows with more regulation and stimulate financial institutions...
read moreEditorial: Employment needs more than GDP growth
Frans Bieckmann | March 12, 2025The creation of more decent jobs should be central to economic policies. The prevailing assumption that GDP growth alone will generate more decent work is not valid. And it obstructs the creation of a society in which labour serves and dignifies b...
read moreJob insecurity as the norm
Bertil Videt, Daniëlle de Winter | March 10, 2025A growing number of people in the industrialized world work under insecure employment conditions. This is due to increasing labour market flexibility, which has influenced the nature of employment and the related power relations. This fundamental...
read moreClarifying the global employment trends
Evert-jan Quak, Annemarie van de Vijsel | March 10, 2025Welcome to The Broker’s dossier on employment. Global employment trends can be confusing. For example, they show an increase in the numbers of unemployed people while at the same time an increase in the amount of jobs. Population growth alone cann...
read moreResources on employment
March 05, 2025The 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...
read moreRevaluing labour
Evert-jan Quak | February 26, 2025The belief that economic growth– together with low inflation rates, technological innovations and good education–is enough to create all the jobs a country needs, is in decline. The reality now is that technology is improving so fast that better e...
read moreProfits without labour benefits
Rolph van der Hoeven | February 26, 2025In many countries the share of labour in national income has declined over the last three decades. As a result, the low and middle-income groups of people who depend the most on wages for their income are crumbling. Meanwhile, the rich elites who...
read moreCreating a global labour market
Niels Beerepoot | February 24, 2025Who benefits or loses from globalization is no longer based on the sector in which one works or the skill group one belongs to. Ongoing technological innovations have enabled greater global competition for a number of jobs. The key challenge for i...
read moreDon't put natural resources aside
Jan Rieländer | 20 November 2024While overcoming dependence is key, abundance of natural resources is not a bad thing in itself.
read moreSocial protection as a global challenge
Bertil Videt | October 22, 2024With only a quarter of the world’s population having access to social protection, the case for expanding it is gaining ground in international discussions. The debate focuses on how best to design social protection, whether it should be universal...
read moreWhat the EU could contribute, with a little more EU-phoria
Mark Furness | 10 September 2024In spite of the ongoing euro crisis, which does not leave much space for an ambitious global agenda, the EU remains a major global development actor.
read moreWhat have we learned?
Amarakoon Bandara | 15 August 2025Although the MDGs are arguably the most politically important pact ever made for international development, they harbor several lessons for their successor framework.
read moreA renewed global partnership for Africa
Carlos Lopes | 12 August 2025A new global partnership can provide the impetus for tackling the development challenges that Africa is facing. It must therefore be mutually beneficial, promote the autonomy of its states and address its developmental priorities.
read moreA renewed global partnership for Africa
Carlos Lopes | 12 August 2025A new global partnership can provide the impetus for tackling the development challenges that Africa is facing. It must therefore be mutually beneficial, promote the autonomy of its states and address its developmental priorities.
read moreIncluding people through employment
Kees Blokland , Jur Schuurman | 26 June 2025Farmers’ organizations spur specialization, increasing employment and income.
read moreAfrica: transformation, more than just growth
Annemarie van de Vijsel | 18 June 2025African economic transformation should be inclusive, but how can this be achieved? Experts discussed this at the launch of the preview of the 2013 African Transformation Report.
read moreJapan’s strategy to include the disabled
Sachiko Nakagawa | 19 June 2025Disabled people can be included in society through work integration social enterprises. What are Japan’s lessons learned?
read moreA Divided Town
Yedan Li | 06 June 2025If China is the world’s factory, then Qingyang town represents the forefront of production.
read moreAn inclusive economy? Yes, but globally!
Rolph van der Hoeven | 23 May 2025Policies to improve inclusiveness should rethink the model of financial globalization in the same way as industrialization was embedded in national welfare states.
read moreThe false tradeoff between growth and inclusion
Dean Baker | 15 May 2025There is a common tendency to view growth and equity as competing goals, including by many of those who have strong concerns about the latter. This is unfortunate since it is likely to lead to bad policy and horrible politics.
read moreSpurring economic transition
May 14, 2025How can we create a more inclusive economy and what obstacles lie in the way? This debate seeks answers.
read moreEmployment is the key to food security
Kees Blokland | 12 March 2025Many small-scale farmers look for opportunities out of agriculture. The only way by doing this without increasing their food insecurity is rural employment. Farmer organisations can help, to spur up specialisation.
read moreResurrection of public water utilities
October 27, 2024Is water a commodity or a public good? Who can assume the right to open or close the water tap? This blog will focus on the public to public partnerships for water utilities.
read moreA Million Climate Jobs
Jojanneke Spoor | 05 June 2025Brian Ashley, editor of Amandla magazine, believes in the importance of linking the climate crisis with other pressing struggles. In South Africa people are faced with mass unemployment, a housing crisis and land issues. In order to make the clima...
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