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This paper investigates differences in the composition of employment between exporting and non-exporting firms. In particular, it asks whether exporting firms hire more engineers relative to blue-collar workers than non-exporting firms. In a stylized partial-equilibrium model, firms produce goods of varying quality and exporters tend to produce higher quality goods, which are intensive in engineers relative to blue-collar workers. Firms are heterogeneous and more productive firms become exporters and have a higher demand for engineers. The paper provides causal evidence in support of these theories using the Chilean Encuesta Nacional Industrial Anual, an annual census of manufacturing firms. The results from an instrumental variable estimator suggest that Chilean exporters indeed utilize a higher share of engineers over blue-collar workers.

This paper examines the earnings premiums associated with different types of employment in 73 countries. Workers are divided into four categories: non-professional own-account workers, employers and own-account professionals, informal wage employees, and formal wage employees. Approximately half of the workers in low-income countries are non-professional own-account workers and the majority of the rest are informal employees. Fewer than 10 percent are formal employees, and only 2 percent of workers in low-income countries are employers or own-account professionals. As per capita gross domestic product increases, there are large net shifts from non-professional own-account work into formal wage employment. Across all regions and income levels, non-professional own-account workers and informal wage employees face an earnings penalty compared with formal wage employees. But in low-income countries this earnings penalty is small, and non-professional own-account workers earn a positive premium relative to all wage employees. Earnings penalties for non-professional own-account workers tend to increase with gross domestic product and are largest for female workers in high-income countries. Men earn greater premiums than women for being employers or own-account professionals. These results are consistent with compensating wage differentials and firm quasi-rents playing important roles in explaining cross-country variation in earnings penalties, and raise questions about the extent to which the unskilled self-employed are rationed out of formal wage work in low-income countries.

Uganda’s economy underwent significant structural change in the 2000s whereby the share of non-tradable services in aggregate employment rose by about 7 percentage points at the expense of the production of tradable goods. The process also involved a 12-percentage-point shift in employment away from small and medium enterprises and larger firms in manufacturing and commercial agriculture mainly to microenterprises in retail trade. In addition, the sectoral reallocation of labor on these two dimensions coincided with significant growth in aggregate labor productivity. However, in and of itself, the same reallocation could only have held back, rather than aid, the observed productivity gains. This was because labor was more productive throughout the period in the tradable goods sector than in the non-tradable sector. Moreover, the effect on aggregate labor productivity of the reallocation of employment between the two sectors could only have been reinforced by the impacts on the same of the rise in the employment share of microenterprises. The effect was also strengthened by a parallel employment shift across the age distribution of enterprises that raised sharply the employment share of established firms at the expense of younger ones and startups. Not only was labor consistently less productive in microenterprises than in small and medium enterprises and larger enterprises across all industries throughout the period, it was also typically less productive in more established firms than in younger ones.

The subject of which firms are the key employers—and which of these create or destroy jobs at a faster rate—is eminently important for academics and policy makers. The relative importance of small versus large firms and old versus young firms has in particular been extensively debated and studied. Nevertheless, the results often hinge on the questions that are asked. Moreover, the categorical definitions used to define firm size and age, and the nature and coverage of the data used have important effects. This paper lays out the relevant definitions and metrics that are central to the debate, reviewing the main findings to date on the subject (with particular emphasis on results in developing economies). The paper adds updated results for 117 developing economies using the World Bank’s Enterprise Survey Data, finding that (i) small and medium enterprises and older establishments are the dominant employers in the nonagricultural private sector labor force in developing economies, and (ii) net job creation is negatively correlated with establishment age and, although the effect of size is also negative, its significance is sensitive to the definition and methods used.

The Better Work Program has its roots in the Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) program, established in 2001 as a follow-on from the 1999 U.S.-Cambodia Bilateral Trade Agreement. The free trade agreement (FTA) was the first to link improved labor conditions with greater market access. The BFC program benefitted all the key stakeholders by improving work conditions, supporting the growth of the apparel sector in Cambodia (benefitting all local stakeholders), and boosting developed world buyers’ reputation by sourcing from ethical workplaces. BFC has also helped to cushion the negative effects of external changes to the trading environment in the apparel sector (the end of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement quota system in 2005 and the global financial crisis in 2008–09). The program has grown substantially; as of December 2014, BW has reached over a million workers in more than 1,000 factories across eight countries (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Haiti, Indonesia, Jordan, Lesotho, Nicaragua, and Vietnam).

This report takes an in-depth look at the development of jobs in the Kyrgyz Republic over the past decade to understand why the country has not realized better job outcomes. Drawing on evidence at the macro, household, and firm level, it examines key shortcomings in the current migration-led, remittance-driven development model that have weakened the country’s ability to create sufficient and high-quality employment opportunities and are likely to result in deteriorating job outcomes in the future. The report argues that several broad transformations will be needed to develop engines of growth in the Kyrgyz Republic outside remittances and shift to a better jobs path. The distortions and obstacles that currently prevent the expansion of private sector employment need to be unraveled; macroeconomic, regulatory, and logistical impediments to greater, more diversified export orientation need to be strategically addressed; the compensation of public employees must be reformed to reduce the level of corruption that discourages business growth; and the migration phenomenon, which will be a part of the employment mosaic for at least another decade, must be made to contribute to domestic employment creation and the country’s development.

This paper uses survey data from 120 developing countries to compare the role of institutions with firm characteristics at the time of creation of the firm in explaining the size, growth, and productivity of firms over their lifecycle. The study finds that firm-level characteristics have comparable, and sometimes even larger, power than institutional factors in predicting size and growth, but not productivity. In particular, size at birth plays a key role in predicting variation in firm size and growth since birth over the firm lifecycle, whereas country factors dominate in predicting variation in labor productivity over the firm lifecycle. The study also finds that older firms are larger, partly because of the selection of more efficient firms. The findings point to the importance of initial founding conditions in explaining variations in size and growth over the firm lifecycle across countries.

Using manufacturing plant-level census data, this paper demonstrates that minimum wage increases in Indonesia reduced gender wage gaps among production workers, with heterogeneous impacts by level of education and position of the firm in the wage distribution. Paradoxically, educated women appear to have benefitted the most, particularly in the lower half of the firm average earnings distribution. By contrast, women who did not complete primary education did not benefit on average, and even lost ground in the upper end of the earnings distribution. Minimum wage increases were thus associated with exacerbated gender pay gaps among the least educated, and reduced gender gaps among the best educated production workers. Unconditional quantile regression analysis attests to wage compression and lighthouse effects. Changes in relative employment prospects were limited.

This report provides an overview of jobs,workers, and employment opportunities in Nigeria, using recent household data. Jobs are critical for Nigeria’s present and future, as better jobs and income-earning opportunities form the basis for more diversified economic growth, poverty reduction, and greater prosperity. This report relies heavily on the wealth of information gathered through the General Household Survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics. The diagnostics included in this report are intended to describe the landscape of jobs in the country and provide broad analysis as an input into the development of a jobs strategy for Nigeria. The analysis conducted for this report has highlighted three areas that need attention: (i) data quality issues, as shown in the several rounds of data cleaning needed to provide consistent statistics; (ii) poor documentation and archiving, which prevented the use of several rounds of the household survey, especially to produce national-level statistics using population weights; and (iii) standardization, to permit comparisons of key variables over time and track the impact of policy changes and other events. As shown in this report, many Nigerians work, but generally in low-earning activities. Most work opportunities in the country are informal and do not come with a wage. This report presents an updated picture of jobs in Nigeria and identifies opportunities for improving the quality of jobs. This report has shown that Nigeria combines middle-income status and Africa’s largest economic power with high poverty levels, largely because the main sectors of economic growth are disconnected from the sectors that provide employment, notably subsistence activities in the agricultural and services sectors. Finally, the diagnostics included in this report show that both new and existing jobs, whether in agriculture or other sectors, will need to be more productive to help the population move out of low-earning employment and poverty.