Maria Elena ValenzuelaILO

ECLAC/ILO Bulletin

Labour market and social protection policies to confront

the crisis

Content of this presentation

• Monitoring of the crisis: An analisis of the trends that have been effective

• Public policies to minimize the impact of the adjustment on employment and wage levels

• Conclusions and challenges

Decent Work: an essential component of the response

to the crisis• New consensus to address the crisis

• Revaluation of state action in economic and employment policies

• Looking for synergies between growth, macroeconomic balance, good quality employment and social protection

Counter-cyclical policies• Objective: Minimize the impact of

adjustment on employment and wages and stimulate aggregate demand in the economy

• Means: Strengthening public expenditure and public investment to offset the fall in private investment, employment and consumption.

Public Investments Increased resources for public works and

infrastructure

Some countries prioritized public investments with high employment generation

Labour intensive methodologies

Decentralized implementation

Promotion of small and micro enterprises

Emergency Employment Programmes

This crisis has made moderate use of this mechanism

Increased coverage (geographical and places) of existing programs

Creation of temporary jobs program, some combined training

Expanding labor market policies

Increased coverage of potential beneficiaries and the period of benefits

Reorientation of labor market policy towards a more integrated approach to training policies and employment protection.

Modern active labour market policies

Labour intermediation and training continue to be widely used, although with new technologies

Training as an instrument for avoiding unemployment all the while making workers more employable

Employment creation in the private sector providing a subsidy

Labour market and social protection policies

Coordination of Labour market and social protection policies to meet the needs of unemployed

• Expansion of cash transfer programs and direct subsidies

• In some countries: policy of increasing minimum wages

Policies in favour of gender equality

• Measures aimed at promoting women’s employment

• Strengthening rights and promoting a more equitable distribution of family responsibilities

• Protecting the incomes of highly vulnerable workers (where women are most)

Conclusions and challenges

• Balance of the crisis: The timely action of the State helped to alleviate its effects

• Recovery Phase: Ensure that employment remains a focus of development policies