Asia needs better jobs to sustain its growth
Source: Agencies |
August 24, 2011, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
DEVELOPING Asia needs to create more high-quality jobs if the region is to sustain the rapid economic expansion of the past two decades, the Asian Development Bank said yesterday.
"Asia has outstripped other regions in growth and employment creation since 1990," ADB chief economist Changyong Rhee said in Singapore. But "Asia remains home to most of the world's poor."
He added: "I do not want to play down the importance of economic growth, but on the quality job front, progress has been less impressive."
Rhee said two-thirds of workers in developing Asia, which excludes Japan, were employed in the informal sector in 2008, little changed from 1990.
In India, the proportion of informal workers rose from 80 percent in 1991 to 82 percent in 2008. However, Thailand's percentage dropped to 54 percent in 2008 from 70 percent in 1990, and Malaysia's fell to 22 percent from 31 percent over the same period, according to the bank's figures.
In contrast, informal workers made up 12 percent of the workforce in developing Europe in 2008, and 33 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean.
ADB said informal work is usually a sign of underemployment and lower income as well as an absence of social safety nets.
The bank urged low--income Asian countries to make it easier for workers to move from rural to urban areas in search of higher-paying jobs, and support activities to increase productivity in the rural non-farm sector. It also recommended extending basic levels of social protection to informal workers.
"Asia has outstripped other regions in growth and employment creation since 1990," ADB chief economist Changyong Rhee said in Singapore. But "Asia remains home to most of the world's poor."
He added: "I do not want to play down the importance of economic growth, but on the quality job front, progress has been less impressive."
Rhee said two-thirds of workers in developing Asia, which excludes Japan, were employed in the informal sector in 2008, little changed from 1990.
In India, the proportion of informal workers rose from 80 percent in 1991 to 82 percent in 2008. However, Thailand's percentage dropped to 54 percent in 2008 from 70 percent in 1990, and Malaysia's fell to 22 percent from 31 percent over the same period, according to the bank's figures.
In contrast, informal workers made up 12 percent of the workforce in developing Europe in 2008, and 33 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean.
ADB said informal work is usually a sign of underemployment and lower income as well as an absence of social safety nets.
The bank urged low--income Asian countries to make it easier for workers to move from rural to urban areas in search of higher-paying jobs, and support activities to increase productivity in the rural non-farm sector. It also recommended extending basic levels of social protection to informal workers.
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