Labor inclusion is a critical factor to reduce inequality and informality in Latin America and the Caribbean

Labor inclusion policies, in combination with productive development and social protection policies, are key to reducing inequalities and high informality in Latin American and Caribbean countries, authorities, academics, and international officials agreed at the inauguration of a three-day meeting held at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile.

The Third Regional Seminar on Social Development: Promoting labor inclusion as a way to overcome inequalities and informality in Latin America and the Caribbean is organized by ECLAC in collaboration with the International Labor Organization (ILO), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, the German Cooperation and the Ford Foundation.

The inaugural session included the participation of José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of ECLAC (video); Gilbert Houngbo, Director General of the ILO (video); Fabio Bertranou, Director of the ILO Office for the Southern Cone of America; Gundula Weitz, Head of the Latin America and Caribbean Division of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of Germany (virtual); Jostein Leiro, Ambassador of Norway in Chile; and Javier Ciurlizza, Director of the Ford Foundation in the Andean Region.

“For ECLAC, labor inclusion is an objective of inclusive social development that seeks to ensure that all members of the workforce can access decent jobs that ensure adequate levels of remuneration and social protection coverage,” said José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs and warned that “women, youth, people with disabilities, people in poverty, Afro-descendants, Indigenous Peoples and other populations that are at the intersection of the structuring axes of the matrix of social inequality face greater obstacles and barriers to labor inclusion” in the region.

Labor inclusion, fundamentally guided by the Ministries of Labor, but highly determined by productive development processes and policies, is an essential component of any strategy to face the challenging social and labor situation in which Latin American and Caribbean countries find themselves. remarked the highest representative of ECLAC.

“In this sense, it will not be possible to create a better future of work without creating a better future of production, and vice versa. They are two sides of the same coin”, pointed out José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs.

During his speech, Gilbert Houngbo, Director General of the ILO, assured that “unless concrete and coordinated actions are taken at multiple levels now, inequalities in the world of work will only worsen.”

“We need medium- and long-term policies that promote economic diversification, improvement in formal education, skills development, the correspondence between job supply and demand, and anticipation to improve the employability and productivity of workers. In addition, sustainable social protection measures and strong labor institutions are crucial to create a safe and fair playing field”, said Houngbo, who reaffirmed the ILO’s commitment to work collaboratively with ECLAC in these areas.

Fabio Bertranou stressed, for his part, that “Latin America and the Caribbean once again faces a particular and difficult situation in terms of decent work policies, which requires a productive environment that boosts productivity and opportunities for sustainable development.” The future of production and work are two sides of the same coin, which is why work must be integrated, he agreed.

Gundula Weitz, from the BMZ of Germany, welcomed Germany’s long history of cooperation with ECLAC and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, and highlighted the holding of the regional seminar as a platform for exchanging experiences. In this sense, she regretted that the economic recovery process in Latin America and the Caribbean is marked by the generation of informal jobs, in a region with more than 40% labor informality, she said.

Ambassador Jostein Leiro also highlighted the long-term cooperation that Norway carries out with ECLAC and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, and asserted that “decent work for women and men is key to social and economic development, and represents the main door to equality, social integration and the end of poverty”.

Finally, Javier Ciurlizza, from the Ford Foundation, affirmed that “in Latin America and the Caribbean there have been many unfulfilled promises. Labor inclusion is undoubtedly one of them. But it is clear that the addition of these broken promises erodes the credibility of the models, erodes the credibility of the systems, and even erodes the belief system.

After the opening session there was a high-level panel with interventions from Jeannette Jara, Minister of Labor and Social Welfare of Chile; Doris Zapata, Minister of Labor and Labor Development of Panama; Colin E. Jordan, Minister of Labour, Social Security and the Third Sector of Barbados (virtual); Raquel Kelly Olmos, Minister of Labor, Employment and Social Security of Argentina; Norman Dunn, Jamaican Minister of Labor and Social Security; Pablo Mieres, Minister of Labor and Social Security of Uruguay (virtual); Quiahuitl Chávez, Undersecretary of Employment and Labor Productivity of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare of Mexico (STPS); and Francisco Macena da Silva, Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Labor and Employment of Brazil (virtual), which included a presentation by Alberto Arenas de Mesa, Director of ECLAC’s Social Development Division.

The pandemic triggered the biggest crisis that the labor markets of Latin America and the Caribbean have experienced since 1950, ECLAC stressed. In 2020, during the pandemic, job creation fell 8.2%, the only drop recorded in the last 70 years. Between 2014 and 2023, the growth rate of the number of employed persons will be 1.26%, compared to 3.2% in the lost decade of the 1980s.

Between 2002-2014, the labor market was key to reducing poverty and inequality, among other factors, due to formalization processes, indicates the United Nations regional commission. Starting in 2015, this trend changed and deteriorated substantially with the pandemic, where a deepening of inequalities is evident.

According to ECLAC data, in 2022, 81.7 million people between the ages of 15 and 59 (28%), from 9 countries in the region, were outside the labor market. Of that total, 57.1 million were women (70%).

In the framework of the meeting, the book was also launched Inequalities, labor inclusion and future of work in Latin Americaprepared by ECLAC within the framework of an agreement with the Ford Foundation, which focuses on the challenges of labor inclusion in the context of the future of work for women, youth, Afro-descendants and Indigenous Peoples.

The document proposes a comprehensive strategy with a territorial approach to address the challenge of labor inclusion, which articulates macroeconomic efforts, productive development, labor policies, the labor market, and contributory and non-contributory social protection policies.

During the three-day event, topics such as labor informality, child labor, labor inclusion of youth, the present and future of work, the development of skills for labor inclusion, and the articulation between labor and social protection policies will be addressed. , among others.