ILO Releases World of Work Report 2013
The International Labour Organization released the preprint edition of the World of Work Report 2013: Repairing the economic and social fabric online on Monday morning.
The 120 page report is divided into five parts:
- Overview of employment trends and projections
- Income distribution and middle-income groups across the world
- Role of minimum wages in rebalancing the economy
- Investment for a job-friendly recovery
- How to shift to a more equitable and job-friendly economic path
According to an article in The Financial Times, which provides a brief overview of the report, developing countries show progress in closing income gaps and rising employment. However, “advanced economies” in Europe and the United States are experiencing higher income inequalities. The ILO notes that “executive pay in many countries had returned to, and in some cases exceeded, pre-recession levels” in the Times’ article.
An excerpt from the World of Work Report 2013 claims that the inequalities in developed countries have grown within the past two years, “thereby resuming the trend that preceded the onset of the global financial crisis”:
Indeed, while between 2007 and 2010 in the majority of advanced economies income equalities tended to fall, the opposite trend has been observed since 2010. Evidence also suggests a widening of wage inequalities, following a brief pause in the immediate aftermath of the crisis […] The result is that the size of the middle-income group has shrunk in the majority of advanced economies over the past two decades.
Download the PDF file of the complete World of Work Report 2013 or download the PDF of the executive summary to read more.
