Medición de la fuerza de trabajo en recientes encuestas de hogares

Analiza algunos aspectos metodológicos y conceptuales sobre la medición de la fuerza de trabajo a partir de encuestas de hogares levantadas recientemente, así cómo la forma en que éstas incorporan las recomendaciones internacionales, para lo cual se seleccionaron seis encuestas de hogares efectuadas en Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador y Costa Rica

La medición de las necesidades básicas insatisfechas en los censos de población

New Page 1 El documento que aquí se presenta tiene dos partes. En la primera se analizan las virtudes y limitaciones de los mapas censales de necesidades básicas insatisfechas, identificando que es lo que válidamente se puede y que es lo que no se puede hacer con los mapas. El tratamiento en la actualidad de estos temas parece altamente pertinente dados, por un lado, la amplitud del campo de aplicaciones en los que los países de la región han utilizado los mapas y por otro, la creciente necesidad de examinar cuidadosamente la validez de comparaciones temporales que están siendo estimuladas por la producción de una segunda generación de mapas de necesidades básicas insatisfechas. También se plantean una serie de problemas, y en algunos casos alternativas de soluciones, en las comparaciones en el espacio, en la calidad de los datos, en la oportunidad de los mismos, etc. La segunda parte es una revisión de un documento anterior publicado por la Oficina de CEPAL en Montevideo, en conjunto con la Dirección General de Estadística y Censos de Uruguay (hoy Instituto Nacional de Estadística);, denominado Pobreza y necesidades básicas en el Uruguay, y agotado hace ya varios años, que hace una discusión detallada de las dimensiones, significados y formas de construcción de cada uno de los indicadores que forman el índice de NBI. Dado que el Gobierno Uruguayo planea realizar el censo nacional de población y vivienda en Mayo de 1996, y que en dichos planes se incluye la elaboración de un nuevo mapa de NBI, pareció oportuno incorporar a esta publicación la revisión del citado documento.

Conceptos y medidas de la pobreza: una síntesis

Incluye Bibliografía

Estadísticas de la población economicamente activa, del empleo, del desempleo y del subempleo

Incluye Bibliografía

Participación laboral femenina y bono de género en América Latina

Este estudio presenta un panorama general de las tendencias de la participación laboral femenina en América Latina y, sobre esta base, aporta elementos conceptuales y metodológicos para el análisis del bono de género —entendido como el beneficio económico potencial que se obtiene por el incremento de la participación de la mujer en la actividad productiva— y para la cuantificación de su impacto económico en la región.

Midiendo el impacto de la infraestructura de la calidad en América Latina: experiencias, alcances y limitaciones

Incluye bibliografía.

Censos y población indígena en México: algunas reflexiones

Incluye bibliografía.

Informe regional sobre la medición de la discapacidad. Una mirada a los procedimientos de medición de la discapacidad en América Latina y el Caribe. Grupo de tareas sobre medición de la discapacidad Conferencia Estadística de las Américas (CEA)

Introducción .-- I. Inclusión de los lineamientos internacionales en los procesos de medición de la discapacidad en los países de América Latina y el Caribe .-- II. Situación actual de la medición de la discapacidad en los países de la región .-- III. Principales dificultades que enfrentan los países en la recolección de datos .-- Conclusiones.

Regional report on measuring disability: Overview of the disability measurement procedures in Latin America and the Caribbean. Task Force on Disability Measurement Statistical Conference of the Americas (SCA)

Introduction .-- I. Inclusion of international guidelines in disability measurement processes in Latin American and Caribbean countries .-- II. State of the art in disability measurement in the region’s countries .-- III. Main difficulties facing countries in terms of collecting information .-- Conclusions.

Argentina: recent dynamics in the software and IT services industry

Includes bibliography.

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.

The earnings share of total income in Latin America, 1990-2010

This article analyses the share of total income represented by employment earnings in the countries of Latin America over the last two decades. It first considers the wage share of gross domestic product (gdp) and then adds in the earnings of self-employed workers. The findings indicate that both total wages and total earnings declined as a share of gdp in most of the region’s countries over the period, although there were some exceptions. The reduction in earnings inequality seen over the past decade was not usually accompanied by an increase in the gdp share of earnings. This means that the improvement in personal income distribution was not matched by an improvement in functional distribution.