World of Work report 2012: key charts

Presentation | 27 April 2012

Employment rates and incidence of non-standard employment, changes between 2007 and 2010 (Fig 1.7) Get Adobe Flash player

Nonstandard employment includes temporary employment or precarious workers (involuntary part-time and temporary employment) for advanced countries and informal employment for developing countries. 

Category 1 consists of countries where employment rates have increased since 2007 and the incidence of non-standard employment has decreased. This group comprises Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Indonesia, Peru, Poland, Thailand, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Category 2 consists of countries where employment rates increased compared to 2007 levels and the incidence of non-standard employment increased. This group comprises Colombia, Luxembourg, Malta, Turkey and Ukraine.

Category 3 consists of countries where employment rates decreased compared to 2007 levels and the incidence of non-standard employment also decreased. This shows that the impact of the crisis on job quality can actually be mixed, as it is usually the worst jobs that are lost first, resulting in an improvement in overall job quality through the composition effect. This group consists of Argentina, Denmark, Ecuador, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, Slovenia, Spain, South Africa and Sri Lanka.

However, countries in this category are relatively heterogeneous in terms of institutions. Netherlands and Denmark have the highest share of part time work, and their strong reliance on this type of employment has helped them to curtail the growth in temporary employment. In contrast, in Spain job quality was improved through the destruction of temporary jobs. Spain also presents the highest rate of transition from temporary jobs to unemployment in 2009.

Category 4 consists of countries where employment rates decreased compared to 2007 levels and the incidence of non-standard employment increased . This category has the largest number of countries and comprises the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The analysis shows that countries such as Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Indonesia, Peru, Poland, Thailand and Uruguay have increased their employment rates without compromising on job quality, in terms of reducing the share of non-standard employment. In countries such as Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Portugal and Romania, the employment situation did not improve and temporary and precarious employment actually increased.


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Simulations: number of jobs that would be created between Q2 2012 and Q2 2013 depending on different policy mix scenarios, advanced economies (F (millions of jobs) (Fig 3.6) Get Adobe Flash player

All scenarios simulate changes in the composition of fiscal balances. They are based on the assumption that increases in expenditures are either offset by reductions in other expenses or financed by increases in revenues. Expenditure items are measured as a percentage of total expenditures and revenue items as a percentage of total revenues.


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Employment and investment changes during 2007–2010, in per cent, selected economies (Fig 4.5) Get Adobe Flash player

Note: The Figure shows the per cent change in investment as a share of GDP and the unemployment rate over the period 2007 and 2010. Figures above the axis represent gains in investment and employment, while those below represent losses.