2023
World Bank Group

Angola is at a critical juncture and a multi-sectoral strategy is needed to stimulate job creation that will help build the economy and future prospects for young Angolans, while more deeply engaging youth and increasing productivity in the short term. Job prospects are limited and although youth are better prepared for the labor market than adults, they are still vulnerable and face multiple constraints. The existing portfolio of Active Labor Market Programs offer few programs that are appropriate for the most vulnerable youth. Though the latest macro-economic adjustments and fiscal consolidation will help, much more is needed to leverage oil revenues away from pure consumption and towards investment to develop Angola as a country in its own right. More aggressive policy reforms in the private sector are needed to support productive job growth for firms as well as entrepreneurs to ensure good jobs that are particularly inclusive of vulnerable youth and women. Furthermore, investments in human capital will help youth develop the skills needed for better jobs while improving labor-matching mechanisms to help youth transition into employment.

Africa
Knowledge Brief
2022
S4YE

This Knowledge Brief shares lessons on how the World Bank’s Promoting Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Social Protection and Employment Programs project team in Haiti worked to enhance the identification of persons with disabilities and provide them with skills for service sector jobs. The Brief highlights the importance of focusing on demand-driven skills, working with mainstream training providers, and proactive outreach to employers.

Latin America and Caribbean
Knowledge Brief
2022
ILO

The 2022 edition discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people and their labour market prospects during the recovery and beyond. Youth have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic and youth labour markets are now being buffeted by the lingering impacts of the pandemic, geopolitical risks and macroeconomic risks such as the impact of supply chain disruptions and rising inflation, particularly that of food and energy. There is also the potential permanent damage wreaked by these crises on the fabric of labour markets. As countries seek to address these multiple challenges, they must also not lose sight of longer-term priorities. In particular, targeted investment in the green, blue (ocean), digital, creative and care economies hold great potential to provide decent jobs for young people while setting economies on path towards greater sustainability, inclusiveness and resilience.

Report
2022
OECD

This OECD paper reviews the experiences of OECD countries that have contracted out employment services through outcome-based payment schemes, focusing on the job brokerage, counselling and case-management employment services typically provided by public agencies. It highlights the need to carefully consider questions related to the design and implementation of this form of contracting: fostering competition amongst potential providers, setting appropriate minimum service requirements and prices for different client groups, and ensuring the accountability of providers through monitoring and evaluations.

Global
Report
2022
SIDA

This brief takes a closer look at the relationship between trade, employment and poverty reduction. Rather than being comprehensive on all aspects, it aims to give an evidence-based overview of some circumstances under which trade can lead to employment generation and poverty reduction that is relevant to Sida and its partners.

Global
Knowledge Brief
2021
ILO

The growth of digital labour platforms is presenting opportunities and challenges for workers and businesses and a need for international policy dialogue. This report examines: the features of platform business model, what motivates workers to perform task on platforms and policy recommendations.

Report
2020
ILO

This guidance explains how employability centers can take the essential steps required for them to offer basic services: registering jobseekers, registering vacancies, job matching and referring jobseekers to employers, collecting and disseminating LMI and statistics, and counseling in some cases. It concludes with recommendations for revising the current service protocols, with a particular focus on registration and vacancy handling.

Africa
Toolkit
2020
South African Cultural Observatory

In October 2018, the South African government held a high-profile Jobs Summit. In addition to acknowledging the challenges of the high South African unemployment rates overall, President Ramaphosa mentioned the importance of job creation for youth (15 – 34 years old) and women specifically. Statistics South Africa Quarterly Labour Force Survey (2018) showed that unemployment rates amongst young people have reached 39.3%. The figure is even higher for young black African women who are attempting to enter the labour market (45.9%).

Africa
Report
2020
Entangled Solutions

Supported by Gates Foundation, the report examines the market of tech-enabled career products that have emerged to help provide better career navigation and guidance. It also looks the potential of scaling guidance using online platforms, apps, gamified assessments, and multimedia. 

Global
Report
2019
EU

Statistical data confirm the continued rise in the contribution of culture and art to the economy and employment in the EU and worldwide. An analysis of labour market data for culture and arts professionals provides an insight into the nature of the employment and livelihood which the sector provides. However, it points to frequent incidence of short-term contracts, part-time jobs and seasonal employment, two or more parallel jobs for people with university diplomas, and this employment situation is frequently qualified as precarious. Culture is a specific domain characterised both by its business model, and its underlying nature of activity related to creativity, identity and self-expression. This combination of very material, financial, and transcendental aspects makes for unique employment conditions in this sector, with two divergent requirements: economic results and contribution to self-expression, well-being, social cohesion, and identity. Cultural works are often copyrighted, providing a source of revenue for cultural professionals. Revenue structure in the sector is complex due to the international mobility of cultural professionals and artists. For instance, such revenues are subject to taxes and can result in double taxation or taxation of people who do not reach the minimum threshold and thus lose their income unduly. The number of cultural professionals and artists is growing steadily, while their employment conditions become more and more unstable. This situation spreads to other sectors and needs to be addressed both in terms of social security and benefits, and revenues and taxation aspects. The EU competence in cultural, social and employment policies is limited, consisting of guidance and coordination without any possibility of harmonisation. However, since cultural professionals' EU mobility is sought after and considered important for the preservation of Europe's cultural diversity, the above-mentioned problems need to be addressed at EU level. The European Commission, Council and Parliament are aware of the situation and approach it from an employment and tax perspective. Cultural education policy could help strengthen the demand for cultural services, contributing to better employment and training of professionals in the sector.

Europe and Central Asia
Report
2019
United Nations

UN Women has developed Empowering Women Migrant Workers from South Asia: Toolkit for Gender-Responsive Employment and Recruitment. The Toolkit provides guidance on ensuring the protection and promotion of the rights of women migrant workers throughout the labour migration cycle.

South Asia
Toolkit
2019
World Bank & S4YE

This is a stocktake summarizing evidence on “what works” in youth employment programs on both the supply and demand side. This paper is based on an extensive desk literature review and analyzes the major meta-analysis and literature reviews on both the labor demand side and labor supply.

Global
Report
2019
World Bank & S4YE

This guide aims to provide general guidance to project managers and project teams on the design and implementation of integrated, cross-sectoral youth employment programs. Governments and development institutions too often implement activities and programs that target either the supply side or the demand side of the labor market without coordination or an explicit intent to create linkages that will maximize the impact of their interventions and improve job opportunities for youth.

Global
Report
2018
Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE)

This brief is part of the Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE) Knowledge Brief series, which highlights the nuts and bolts of youth employment programs and discusses ways in which youth employment programs can make strategic use of their data.

Global
Knowledge Brief
2018
J-PAL

This knowledge brief provides policy insights on reducing search barriers for job seekers and is a synthesis of 19 randomized evaluations looking at how to improve employment outcomes for job seekers.

Global
Knowledge Brief
2018
Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE)

This brief highlights the challenge transport costs present towards youth getting a job and some potential solutions to overcome it. It also shares an in-depth example of a solution at work with Harambee's experience in South Africa.

Global
Knowledge Brief
2017
RTI International

Career Builders Toolkit is a guide for creating, evaluating, and enhancing career counseling and youth support programs in global workforce development. The Toolkit provides empirically supported tools for program development and evaluation in collaborative career development and mental health capacity building efforts worldwide.

Global
Toolkit
2017
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

The purpose of this guide is to provide information, guidance, and tools for designing and implementing job placement services so that disadvantaged youth have a better chance of obtaining and retaining jobs in the highly competitive world of work.

Global
Toolkit
2017
Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE)

This brief intends to guide employment service providers, government, businesses, and civil society agencies seeking to strengthen youth employment outcomes through impactful employment services to better design and coordinate their activities. 

Global
Knowledge Brief
2017
World Bank & S4YE

S4YE collaborated with LinkedIn to use LinkedIn’s unique data base to address the question: what is the alignment, or mismatch, between the skills employers are demanding and those among the young talent supply? It focuses on four middle-income countries (Brazil, India, Indonesia and South Africa) and analyzes 390,000 entry-level postings and 6.4 million LinkedIn profiles of youth ages 21-29 to better understand top industries of employment, as well as recruitment and skills trends.

Global
Report