Publication: Brazil : Jobs Report, Volume 2. Background Papers
Date
2002-12-20
ISSN
Published
2002-12-20
Author(s)
World Bank
Abstract
This report, conducted jointly by
researchers in Brazil and at the World Bank, aims to address
the debate on how the Brazilian labor market functions. It
does so not by focusing on labor market functioning but on
its outcomes. What is central are labor market outcomes,
such as adequate employment growth so that job-seekers can
find gainful employment, acceptable worker productivity
levels that are fairly compensated, and reasonable income
security for workers and their households. This report is
structured as follows: Chapter 1 argues that labor laws have
begun to show signs of obsolescence. Chapter 2 shows this is
reflected in deteriorating outcomes. Key
indicators--employment growth, labor force participation,
unemployment rates, and income security--all point to
worsening labor market functioning since the mid-1990s. The
report then examines how changed macroeconomic circumstances
call for changes in labor market institutions, regulations,
and interventions. Using a characterization of the economy
in which informality has a central role, Chapter 3
illustrates the correspondence between the three main
macroeconomic phenomena of the 1990s--greater openness,
stabilization, and fiscal adjustment--and Brazil's
labor market priorities. Chapter 4 concludes that the labor
market has signaled the shortage of educated workers since
the 1990s, and the onus is now on the education and training
systems to respond. Analysis of how Brazil's labor
market functions in Chapter 5 points to evidence that
indicates that Brazil's poorer workers and smaller
firms are especially disadvantaged by how the labor market
functions. The report identifies three sets of priorities
for reform: changes in mandated non-wage benefits and
minimum wage setting to price labor correctly and encourage
empoloyment growth (Chapter 6), changes in severance
legislation and functioning of labor courts to better align
incentives and increase productivity (Chapter 7), and
improvements in interventions to increase income security
for all workers (Chapter 8). Chapter 9 summarizes and
highlights the main policy implications. Volume 2 contains
in-depth examination of the issues of interest in Brazil and
the relevant international experience, on which Chapters 1
through 8 of the first volume are based.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2002. Brazil : Jobs Report, Volume 2. Background Papers. © Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15291 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”