The employment situation in Latin America and the Caribbean: Advances and challenges in measuring decent work

At 6.4%, the unemployment rate for the Latin American and Caribbean region overall was the lowest for the past few decades, down from 6.7% in 2011. This is significant, in view of the difficult employment situation prevailing in other world regions. Labour market indicators improved despite modest growth of just 3.0% in the region’s economy. Even with sharply rising labour market participation, the number of urban unemployed fell by around 400,000, on the back of relatively strong job creation. Nevertheless, around 15 million are still jobless in the region. Other highlights of 2012 labour market performance were that the gender gaps in labour market participation, unemployment and employment narrowed, albeit slightly; formal employment increased; the hourly underemployment rate declined; and average wages rose. This rendering was obviously not homogenous across the region. Labour market indicators worsened again in the Caribbean countries, for example, reflecting the sluggish performance of their economies. The sustainability of recent labour market progress is also a cause for concern. Most of the new jobs in the region were created as part of a self-perpetuating cycle in which new jobs and higher real wages (and greater access to credit) have boosted household purchasing power and so pushed up domestic demand. Much of this demand is for non-tradable goods and services (and imports), which has stimulated expansion of the tertiary sector and hence its demand for labour, and many of the new jobs have therefore arisen in these sectors of the economy. This dynamic certainly has positive implications in terms of labour and distribution, but the concern is whether it is sustainable in a context of still relatively low investment (even after some recent gains) which is, moreover, not structured in a manner conducive to diversifying production. Doubt hangs over the future growth of production capacity in the region, given the enormous challenges facing the region in terms of innovation, education quality, infrastructure and productivity. As vigorous job creation has driven progress in reducing unemployment, attention has turned once again to the characteristics of that employment. Awareness exists in the region that economic growth is essential, but not in itself sufficient to generate more and better jobs. For some time, ILO has been drawing attention to the fact that it is not enough to create any sort of employment. The concept of decent work, as proposed by ILO, emphasized the need for quality jobs which enshrine respect for fundamental rights at work. The United Nations General Assembly endorsed this notion and incorporated it into the targets set in the framework of the Millennium Development Goals. This eighth issue of the ECLAC/ILO publication “The employment situation in Latin America and the Caribbean” examines how the concept of decent work has evolved in the region, progress in measuring it and the challenges involved in building a system of decent work indicators, 14 years after the concept was first proposed. Although the concept of decent work has been accompanied since the outset by the challenge of measurement, its first objective was to generate a discussion on the best achievable labour practices in each country. Accordingly, rather than defining a universal threshold of what could be considered decent work —regarding which developed countries might have almost reached the target before starting, while poor countries could be left hopelessly behind— ILO called upon the countries to define their own criteria and measurements for promoting decent work policies. As a result, there is no shared set of variables for measuring decent work applicable to all countries. The suggestion is, instead, that countries move forward with measuring decent work on the basis of their own priorities, using the information they have available now and in the future. However, this strategy of progressing according to the data available in each country tends to complicate statistical comparison between them. So, once the countries have developed their respective systems of decent work indicators, it will be also be important to work towards harmonizing them. ECLAC and ILO are available to provide technical support to this end. With respect to 2013, there is cautious optimism regarding the performance of the region’s labour markets. If projections of a slight uptick —to 3.5%— in the region’s economic growth in 2013 are borne out, labour indicators should continue to gradually improve. This will bring new increases in real wages and a slight drop of up to 0.2 percentage points in the region’s unemployment rate, reflecting a fresh rise in the regional employment rate and slower growth in labour market participation.

Caracterização mineralógica, química e solubilização do potássio de glauconita modificada

Demand for potassium in Brazil is large and is constantly increasing, but only about 5% of all consumed potassium is produced in the country. This low domestic production implies high rate of potassium imports, leaving the country vulnerable in the event of any difficulty to import this product and currency fluctuations. The modified glauconite is a rock that has a high potential for potassium exploration, found in Minas Gerais state, its extraction is relatively cheap and the prospected rock volume is high. The difficulty for its use as a direct source of potassium is in its low solubility. Thus, the objective of this study was to perform a chemical and mineralogical characterization of the modified glauconite and evaluate the effectiveness of techniques and treatments in the potassium solubilization contained in the rock. For this study, it was used characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, diffraction by Synchrotron Light and chemical analysis of high and low power of potassium extraction. Also granulometric testing and thermal treatments with different forms of calcination were carried out. Overall, it was found that the modified glauconite is a compound of minerals, of the mica groups K-feldspar and quartz and calcination substantially alter the crystal structure of these minerals, increasing the potassium availability. While the natural solubility of glauconite modified be very low, rock calcination added with high fluxes of calcium and low magnesium content at 1200 °C led to potassium solubility increase in order of 100 times compared to that observed in the glauconite natural modified.

O paradoxo nas relações comerciais Brasil e China no período 2000-2010

Pós-graduação em Ciências Sociais - FFC

Módulo para analizar el crecimiento del comercio internacional (MAGIC Plus): manual para el usuario

Incluye Bibliografía

The escalation in world food prices and its implications for the Caribbean

During the last years, the steep increase in food prices has been one of the most distinctive characteristics of the world economy. Many factors have been hypothesized as the main drivers of this phenomenon, both structural and temporary. International food inflation has had perceptible effects on food importing countries and regions. As such, the Caribbean has suffered the impact mainly through four channels, namely, domestic inflation, imports bill and trade balance, poverty and indigence rates, and equity. This study addresses empirically these issues from a regional perspective.

Caribbean tourism and agriculture: Linking to enhance development and competitiveness

This study examines current trends in tourism and agriculture in Caribbean countries and the strategy for linking them in order to facilitate their future development. The tourism industry has, in the past, developed largely apart from other sectors such as agriculture. On the other hand, agriculture has developed mainly to satisfy export markets. Domestic agriculture has had limited development and has therefore been displaced to a considerable extent by food imports. The recent promotion of agriculture tourism linkages is an attempt to enhance the local value added of the tourism industry, while at the same time promoting the development of domestic agriculture. However, it is argued that agriculture-tourism linkage per se will not facilitate the development of either tourism or agriculture. The nature of the tourism product in each country has to be understood before effective strategies could be devised for improving competitiveness. A similar approach is also necessary in respect of the agriculture sector. Increased linkage between tourism and agriculture could be enhanced through the adoption of a cluster-based strategy for improving the competitiveness of the tourism sector and for improving the livelihoods of communities and rural areas.

Revista CEPAL no. 118

Número especial por los 40 años de la Revista CEPAL

Dinâmica econômica e recentes transformações no transporte marítimo de cabotagem e longo curso no Brasil: alguns apontamentos sobre a modernização portuária no Estado de São Paulo

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Análise da produtividade e rentabilidade de lavouras cafeeiras agroquímica e orgânica na região da Alta Paulista

Pós-graduação em Agronomia (Energia na Agricultura) - FCA

Effect of potassium sources and rates on arabica coffee yield, nutrition, and macronutrient export

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Historiografia da inserção do Brasil no regime internacional de acumulação nas eras FHC e Lula: do regional ao multilateral

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

A indústria farmacêutica no Brasil: um estudo do impacto socioeconômico dos medicamentos genéricos

Recently, some countries outside the Triad (Japan, Europe and the United States) have assumed an important role in the pharmaceutical scenario, as large producers, among them stand out Brazil. In the 90s, there were major institutional transformations and the pharmaceutical industry has undergone a reverse specialization process, because liberalization has discouraged production of pharmaceutical chemicals and dependence of imports increased. The law of generics medicines in 1999 emerged as an attempt to increase the population's access to medicines equivalent to ones with brand, with more affordable prices. As a result of this law there was a strengthening of the national capital and a major attraction for foreign companies to brazilian market. This study aims to assess the development trajectory of the country, showing how path-dependence has culminated in greater empowerment of national pharmaceutical industries after the Generics Law in 1999

Estratégias Produtivas e Tecnológicas das empresas da Indústria Farmacêutica do Brasil e da Índia: um exame a partir de indicadores aplicados aos fluxos de comércio exterior

This work aims to evaluate the different trajectories in terms of production structure, technological capabilities and performance in international trade of pharmaceutical industries in Brazil and India. For this, we build international trade indicators, based on data provided by the COMTRADE, the UN database for trade. Through the indicators, it is observed that the countries have different results in the catch-up process of the pharmaceutical industry. India has built a productive structure strongly based on generic drugs, with which it is able to greatly meet domestic demand and export to many countries worldwide. Brazil remains in a position of dependence of foreign production, with a high level of imports and exports to the region of Latin America

Uma análise das estratégias de manufatura adotadas por seis montadoras da indústria automobilística mundial

The Brazilian automotive industry has undergone profound changes during the 90’s decade, as a consequence of the market opening up through the liberation of automobile imports. The exposure of the Brazilian domestic market to competition with imported products of high quality and lower prices indicated the need for significant changes in those auto industries operating in this country, with the intention of making them competitive. To achieve these objectives management and production concepts were adopted, such as: the just-in-time philosophy; lean manufacturing; outsourcing; reengineering and increasing the rate of automation in both production and management systems. These changes helped to increase productivity and, in turn, reduced the level of employment in the sector, especially in activities where the required qualification levels were low. Despite this modernization, the Brazilian companies have committed themselves to meet the specific needs of the Brazilian market. The objective of this paper is to analyze and present manufacturing strategies from six manufacturers of automotive vehicles: Toyota in Japan, Fiat in Italy, Volkswagen in Brazil and Germany and General Motors in the U.S. and Brazil. The predominant method of research was from reviewing relevant literature, whereas the empirical data was analyzed qualitatively. The article seeks to identify the manufacturing strategies adopted by manufacturers located in the above countries, electing one automotive manufacturer to represent each country. The research demonstrated that the processes for production of automobiles in four plants located in, the U.S. (GM); Italy (Fiat); Japan (Toyota) and Germany (VW) are similar to those adopted in Brazilian industrial plants of the same companies (GM and VW), with differences of operations only in the business strategies adopted by each of them.

Evidence of Bos javanicus x Bos indicus hybridization and major QTLs for birth weight in Indonesian Peranakan Ongole cattle

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)