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Republic of the Philippines Labor Market ReviewThis study analyzes labor market
 performance in the Philippines from the perspective of
 workers’ welfare. It argues that pervasive in-work poverty
 is the main challenge facing labor policy. Poverty is
 primarily due to low earning capacity of the poor and to
 their limited access to regular and productive jobs. Behind
 these are the two interrelated root causes of in-work
 poverty - low education of the poor, and the scarcity of
 productive job opportunities. The labor market is segmented
 into good and bad jobs, with the poor working in the latter.
 They hold jobs that are informal, temporary or casual, and
 low-paid. Widespread informality means that the poor neither
 benefit from the minimum wage policy nor from employment
 protection legislation. They do not benefit from wage growth
 either, because their bargaining power is weak. Good jobs
 are so few, especially in rural areas, that even better
 educated workers are often forced to take unskilled jobs and
 work as low-paid laborers. The reduction of in-work poverty
 hinges on removing constraints to gainful employment in both
 supply side (better education and skills) and demand side
 (better jobs). It is critical that the young poor have
 improved access to quality education, and be equipped with
 skills required in the modern sector of the economy. But in
 parallel, better jobs need to be created, which can be
 attained from the growth of the formal and higher value
 added sector of the economy. The process of structural
 transformation should be supported by effective labor
 policy. Labor regulations need to be made simpler and more
 flexible to facilitate the reallocation of labor from less
 to more productive activities, and from informal to formal
 sector. Targeted training programs have the potential to
 address the problem of low skills among the poor workers,
 especially the young ones. Such programs should be developed
 on a pilot basis and expanded if proven to be cost-effective.
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The Challenge of Youth Employment in Sri LankaSri Lanka has been regarded as a model of a country with successful social policies, yet for decades it has faced major challenges in providing employment and satisfying other aspirations of youth. Although the labor force has become more educated, and this trend is particularly marked for youth, the main source of employment for both youth and adults remains the informal sector. Moreover, the importance of the informal sector as a source of employment has increased since the mid-1990s. On the positive side, unemployment declined in last decades, particularly for youth. The Sri Lankan government has continually acted on various fronts to address the youth unemployment problem. It has tried to improve and modernize Sri Lanka's general education system, which has long been criticized as too academic, and to increase the accessibility of training so as to promote the employability youth leaving school. Other actions included strengthening entrepreneurship programs and introducing career guidance and counseling and improving labor market information to help young people in their job searches and to guide human resource planning. In 2007, the government developed the National Action Plan for youth employment, built, for the first time, on a coherent youth employment policy framework and deriving an encompassing and consistent set of policy recommendations. The plan was based on in-depth analysis of Sri Lanka's labor market, provided via a series of background papers undertaken under the auspices of the Youth Employment Network (YEN). To provide the richness and comprehensiveness of this analysis in its totality, these papers, updated and revised, are collected in the present book. This book offers a wealth of valuable advice to the government and other stakeholders to achieve this goal. By exploiting the full potential of the youth, not only will their talent, aspirations, and energy be harnessed to advance economic growth, but also the existing inequities will be reduced and, hopefully in the longer run, eliminated.
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The Challenge of Youth Employment in
 Sri LankaSri Lanka has been regarded as a model
 of a country with successful social policies, yet for
 decades it has faced major challenges in providing
 employment and satisfying other aspirations of youth.
 Although the labor force has become more educated, and this
 trend is particularly marked for youth, the main source of
 employment for both youth and adults remains the informal
 sector. Moreover, the importance of the informal sector as a
 source of employment has increased since the mid-1990s. On
 the positive side, unemployment declined in last decades,
 particularly for youth. The Sri Lankan government has
 continually acted on various fronts to address the youth
 unemployment problem. It has tried to improve and modernize
 Sri Lanka's general education system, which has long
 been criticized as too academic, and to increase the
 accessibility of training so as to promote the employability
 youth leaving school. Other actions included strengthening
 entrepreneurship programs and introducing career guidance
 and counseling and improving labor market information to
 help young people in their job searches and to guide human
 resource planning. In 2007, the government developed the
 National Action Plan for youth employment, built, for the
 first time, on a coherent youth employment policy framework
 and deriving an encompassing and consistent set of policy
 recommendations. The plan was based on in-depth analysis of
 Sri Lanka's labor market, provided via a series of
 background papers undertaken under the auspices of the Youth
 Employment Network (YEN). To provide the richness and
 comprehensiveness of this analysis in its totality, these
 papers, updated and revised, are collected in the present
 book. This book offers a wealth of valuable advice to the
 government and other stakeholders to achieve this goal. By
 exploiting the full potential of the youth, not only will
 their talent, aspirations, and energy be harnessed to
 advance economic growth, but also the existing inequities
 will be reduced and, hopefully in the longer run, eliminated.