Tag Archives: economic and social development

More than 26 million unemployed in Latin America and the Caribbean: the need for new engines of growth

Posted on by
1

José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs
is Regional Director of the ILO for Latin America and the Caribbean

In 2017, labour markets in Latin America and the Caribbean are marked by a new increase in unemployment and worsening working conditions. As the year progresses, the indicators and forecasts confirm that the labour situation is becoming more worrisome. The latest forecasts already announce a weak economic recovery this year after last year’s contraction. This slow economic growth, of barely 1.1 per cent for Latin America and the Caribbean, will not be enough to change the negative trends in the world of work.

Continue reading →

Whose job is it to take out the digital trash?

Posted on by
Reply

Dorothea Hoehtker is a senior researcher at the ILO RESEARCH department

How do Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites protect you, the consumer, from disturbing content on the web? Many of us think our computers’ sophisticated algorithms perform such constant editing, but algorithms are not able to make subtle distinctions, e.g. between art and pornography. Rather, technology companies rely on people to do this work. They are the so-called Commercial Content Moderators (CCM).
While CCMs remain largely invisible, some scholars, journalists and artists have started to bring attention to this workforce and the toll editing the Internet takes on them.

Continue reading →

New technologies and the dynamics of job creation

Posted on by
1

Irmgard Nubler, senior economist at the International Labour Organization

The recent wave of innovation and technological change has sparked a lively debate on the future of work. Some believe that technological innovations will destroy jobs on a massive scale, forecasting a jobless future. Others are confident that forces will be mobilized that create new jobs and even a golden age of quality job creation. This optimism is supported by historical experience which demonstrates that initial phases of job destruction were eventually followed by strong job creation. One of the central issues is, then, whether the current wave of technological change will once more generate a sustained process of jobs creation. Another one is how policies can support this process to meet aspirations of societies.

Continue reading →