Abstract
Objectives: This paper attempts to explore the critical insights into the labor markets of South Asian countries taking ILO’s Key Indicators of the Labor Market (KILM) as an example for illustrations. In addition, the paper puts its lens on addressing adequate policies and program responses at country level, especially for Bangladesh. Methodology: This is basically a policy-focused study focusing on an extensive analysis of existing relevant documents and literature. The paper has therefore adopted three steps methodological approach: collecting, scrutinizing and analyzing. The required data were collected from secondary sources including strategic papers, technical notes, conference proceedings, statistical reports, research articles, relevant books and e-materials of reputed international organizations such as ILO and World Bank. Findings: A critical review of the existing facts and documents has revealed that despite geo-political and ethnical differences, South Asian labor economies are characterized with homogonous labor market characteristics including low labor force participation rate, gender gap in employment and wages, notable labor dependency ratio, working poor, sluggish wage growth, low labor productivity, excessive working hours, high NEET rate, and a state of labor underutilization. In addition, countries differ in terms of policy issues, implementation levels, data availability and compliance to ILO’s decent work agenda to a large extent. Recommendations: An integrated labor policy incorporating the lessons and experiences of developed countries, opinions of stakeholders and labor specialists, balanced and diversified development programs, compliance to ILO’s decent work agenda, and collaborative works with national and international labor organizations are supposed to contribute to better functioning of labor markets. Implications: Although this region of the world is blessed with abundant labor force, a critical analysis has revealed several implications at both national and regional level. The current scenario of lower labor force participation rate and higher time-related underemployment indicate the absence of policies for the fullest utilization of this golden human resource. In addition, slow or negative wage growth and poor wages badly affect the living standards of workers. Despite the consecutive growth in industry and service sector, still the employment in this region is predominantly agricultural which in turn is largely responsible for informal employment. Value/Originality: This study is one of very few labor market studies focusing on the critical aspects of South Asian labor markets. The paper is therefore expected to add value to the existing field of regional labor market research. Academics, researchers, policymakers and stakeholders are largely be benefited from this study.
Highlights
In the last two decades, the world experienced the impact of global financial crisis at both national and international levels
Since reliability is the prime concern in documents review (Scott, 2006), we focused on documents and statistical facts published by reputed organizations such as International Labor Organization (ILO), World Bank, Asian Development Bank, UNDP, and so on
Each indicator of labor market, as prescribed in Key Indicators of the Lab our Market (KILM), is first conceptually described in this paper followed by critical analysis of South Asian labor market with statistical facts
Summary
In the last two decades, the world experienced the impact of global financial crisis at both national and international levels. Almost all the countries disregarding the size of the economy were affected with varying degree due to the fact that ‘financial markets are highly integrated at the global level’ (Alcidiand Gross, 2010; Daly et al, 2014). This global financial crisis led to the substantive changes in macroeconomic policies resulting in structural labor policy reforms across countries. Nearly 1.0–1.2 million new workers join the labor force each month in this region, labor markets are confronted with numerous challenges in creating more and better jobs This poses pressures to policy makers and development partners to undertake policy reforms in order to ensure better functioning of labor markets. The heterogeneity of the countries in this region is evident in terms of quality jobs, economic growth, labor policies, and demographic profiles
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