Publication: Navigating Labor Market Challenges with a Focus on Youth and Women’s Employment: Labor Supply Analysis for Mongolia
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2024-07-02
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2024-07-02
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Mongolia’s working age population is young, educated, and predominantly urban - creating a pool of well-educated young people living in urban centers. But Mongolia struggles to utilize its human resources in an effective and inclusive way. Labor force participation and employment rates are low and declining, while unemployment, including long-term unemployment, is high. Those who work often work excessively long hours. The share of the working age population with tertiary education is high - and compares well with that of high-income countries - but returns to tertiary (and upper secondary) education have declined in recent years. Women with tertiary degrees outnumber men, but the gender gap in labor force participation remains high and women are also still underrepresented in the higher-paying science and engineering fields. School-to-work transitions are slow, resulting in large numbers of graduates, especially better educated women, who are NEET (not in employment, education or training). Growth in real wages is considerable but lags the gains in labor productivity. Disparities exist by gender, age, education, and location, making certain groups, including women and youth, particularly vulnerable to labor market inequities. With the old-age dependency ratio set to rise in the 2040s, Mongolia's demographic window will soon be closing. To promote economic growth and harness its demographic dividend, it will be critical for Mongolia to better utilize available labor resources through increased employment, reduced labor market disparities, and higher productivity.
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“Avdeenko, Alexandra; Fraikin, Anne-Lore; Gruen,, Carola; Millan, Natalia. 2024. Navigating Labor Market Challenges with a Focus on Youth and Women’s Employment: Labor Supply Analysis for Mongolia. Jobs Working Paper; Issue No. 81. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/41811 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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School-to-work transitions are slow, resulting in large numbers of graduates, especially better educated women, who are NEET (not in employment, education or training). Growth in real wages is considerable but lags the gains in labor productivity. Disparities exist by gender, age, education, and location, making certain groups, including women and youth, particularly vulnerable to labor market inequities. With the old-age dependency ratio set to rise in the 2040s, Mongolia's demographic window will soon be closing. To promote economic growth and harness its demographic dividend, it will be critical for Mongolia to better utilize available labor resources through increased employment, reduced labor market disparities, and higher productivity.Publication Portraits of Labor Market Exclusion(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2014-08)The financial crisis that hit the global market in the middle of 2008 gave way to the sharpest contraction of the European economies since the Great Depression. 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