Back to Work : Growing with Jobs in Europe and Central Asia

Omar S. Arias et al

ISBN 10: 0821399101 / ISBN 13: 9780821399101

Published by World Bank Publications Jan 2014, 2014

About this Item

Neuware - Over the last decade, significant global and regional forces including changes in technology, trade patterns, and business practices, with a steady shift in value added production and employment toward knowledge-intensive activities and services such as finance, the hospitality industry, and the retail trade, have been affecting the production and occupational structures of most developed economies.

Seller Inventory # 9780821399101

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Back to Work : Growing with Jobs in Europe and Central Asia
• Publisher: World Bank Publications Jan 2014
• Publication Date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0821399101
• ISBN 13: 9780821399101
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 251W x 177H x 20D millimeters 251 millimeters width by 177 millimeters height by 20 millimeters depth
• Weight: 456 grams

About this title

Synopsis

What can be done to create more and better jobs in Europe and Central Asia? And should there be specific policies to help workers access those jobs? The authors of this book examine these questions through the lens of two contextual factors: the legacy of centralized planned economies and the mounting demographic pressures associated with rapid aging in some countries and soaring numbers of youth entering the workforce in others. The authors find the following: • Market reforms pay off, albeit with a lag, in terms of jobs and productivity. • A small fraction of superstar high-growth firms accounts for most of the new jobs created in the region. • Skills gaps hinder employment prospects, especially of youth and older workers, because of the inadequate response by the education and training systems to changes in the demand for skills. • Employment is hindered by high implicit taxes on formal work and barriers that affect especially women, minorities, youth, and older workers. • Low internal labor mobility prevents labor relocation to places with greater job creation potential. Back to Work: Growing with Jobs in Europe and Central Asia asserts that to get more people back to work and to grow with jobs, countries, especially late reformers, need to regain the momentum for economic and institutional reforms that existed before the economic crisis. They should lay the fundamentals to create jobs for all workers, by pushing reforms to create the enabling environment for existing firms to grow, become more productive, or exit the market and let new firms emerge and succeed (or fail fast and cheap). They should also implement policies to support workers so that those workers are prepared to take on the new jobs being created, by having the right skills and incentives, unhindered access to work, and being ready to relocate.