An Assessment of Changes in Employment Conditions in Less Developed Countries

Abstract

Among the problems considered to be most pressing among less developed countries (LDCs) is that of employment. The popular and professional literature is replete with references to an alleged failure of economic development to provide a sufficient number of new employments to absorb rapidly growing labor forces. Expressions of fear that a low absorptive capacity would lead to a deterioration in the quality of employment or to an increase in open and disguised unemployment have now been converted into assertions that employment conditions have been worsening generally in LDCs.1 What is notable about these assertions is that they are undocumented, that is, they lack an empirical foundation. Few would argue with an assertion that employment conditions in LDCs are precarious for many, for, after all, this is one of the conditions by which we can distinguish LDCs from DCs. However, to go beyond such an observation to an assertion that employment conditions have actually been deteriorating would seem to require more than a simple statement that it is so in order to establish it as truth.