World Development Report 2013 - Highlights

The World Bank has recently published its regular publication "The World Development Report 2013". This year the report has been published with the theme "JOB". The report has highlighted the importance of job in development process. Some interesting numerical facts highlighted by the report are as below.

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• 1.6 billion people working for a wage or a salary
• 1.5 billion people working in farming and self-employment
• 77% labor force participation by women in Vietnam
• 28% labor force participation by women in Pakistan
• 39% of manufacturing jobs are in micro-enterprises in Chile
• 97% of manufacturing jobs are in micro-enterprises in Ethiopia
• Double employment growth in a firm in Mexico over 35 years
• 10 times employment growth in a firm in the United States over 35 years
• 115 million children working in hazardous conditions
• 21 million victims of forced labor
• 600 million jobs needed over 15 years to keep current employment rates
• 90 million people working abroad
• 621 million youth neither working nor studying
• 22 times -  the productivity gap between manufacturing firms in the 90th and 10th percentiles in India
• 9 times - the productivity gap between manufacturing firms in the 90th and 10th percentiles in the United States
• 10 million entrants to the labor force per year in Sub-Saharan Africa
• 30 million post-secondary students in China
• 3%  international migrants as a share of the world population
• 60% foreign-born population in Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.  

Major highlights of "The World Development Report 2013"

Jobs are transformational

  


















Jobs account for much of the decline in extreme poverty

Jobs provide higher earnings and benefits as countries grow

 Jobs are the means to take the poor out of poverty especially in developing countries

 The individual and social values of jobs can differ

 Jobs are the most important source of household income 

 Job security is more important than the salary scale to the workers 

 Some job policies may be beneficial to other countries while some may be harmful too 

Simultaneous Job creation and destruction is the normal phenomenon in all economies 

Working hours vary across the ages and also differs according to countries 

Labor regulation may not be the biggest obstacle to formalization 

   Larger firms pay higher wages 

Gender and father's education are two major factors responsible for creating inequality of opportunity in access to jobs 

Life satisfaction is lower among farmers and the unemployed 

Manufacturing jobs are decreasing in high-income countries and increasing in low-income countries 

People with motivating jobs trust and participate more 

Not all jobs provide social identity, networks, or a sense of fairness 

Views on preferred jobs and the most important jobs are different according to region/country 

People who are unemployed trust and participate less 

Some jobs do more for development 

Among youth, unemployment is not always the issue 

Women spend more time in activities not directly generating income 

Jobs demobilizing combatants, reintegrating displaced populations, providing alternatives to confrontation are good jobs for development in conflict-affected Political countries while more-productive smallholder farming and urban jobs connected to global markets are good jobs for development in the countries with agrarian economy 

Workplace training is more effective than in-class training for success of the programs. Combining in-class and workplace training is the most effective 

Proportion of nonwage employment to total employment is higher in Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, Pacific and South Asia, Middle East and North Africa as compared to that in Europe, Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean (i.e. all jobs doesn't come with wage) 

China, Republic of Korea and Japan are the countries with highest growth rate of crop yield while Sub-Saharan African countries have the lowest growth rate of crop yield 

Access to finance and power shortage are among the top constraints faced by private sectors 

If there were no green revolution, poverty would have remained higher in agrarian economies 

Foreign investment can increase domestic productivity due to knowledge spillovers 

Labor reallocation across sectors was a driver of productivity growth in East Asia 

Skills have become a major constraint to business 

Slovenia is the country with highest percentage (≈ 90%) of workers with collective bargaining power while workers in Philippines have the lowest collective bargaining power (≈ 2%). Philippines, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada,  Hungary, Poland etc. are the countries in which workers have less bargaining power while  Slovenia, Austria, Belgium, Sweden , France, Finland, Iceland, Netherlands, Spain, Denmark etc. are the countries with high collective bargaining power with workers 

Political instability and inadequate power supply are the major constraints in business in conflict-affected countries 

Newer organizations are more likely to be engaged in innovative activities than old ones 

Tomorrow's successful entrepreneurs are those who are self employed today