Labour Overload
Women's rights and gender gaps, labour laws and youth employment, equal treatment and equal opportunity. ASEAN, Asia-Pacific and Global labour trends and issues
UPDATE: Indonesia faces labour market difficulties as it seeks to improve investment and gender opportunities. Employment, education and/or training in Asia and the Pacific encompasses a broad array of vulnerabilities among youth including economic and employment disadvantages and limited social mobility consequences. Young women seek an end to violence in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Dramatic changes in Myanmar and Afghanistan and war in Ukraine are abruptly shuffling the economic deck for countries throughout Asia. For governments, workers and enterprises, labour market recovery in the Asia–Pacific region lags behind global levels.
A combination of economic and political crises is putting global labour market recovery in jeopardy, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). Labour market recovery and inequalities are due to the disproportionate impact of global crises on workers and firms and contributing to a growing divergence between developed and developing economies. The Long Mekong Daily is working hard to inform its growing subscriber base about labour mobility, workers rights, gender inequality. In the Global South, governments, enterprises and worker organisations are striving to generate economic development and growth in the face of the Global North’s expanding militarisation, supply chain apartheid, recessionary fears and rising economic neuralgia.
Empowering women’s rights in Indonesia
Gender equality was a key aspiration of the popular movements that led to the toppling of Indonesia’s authoritarian New Order regime 24 years ago. The catchcry of that euphoric moment — pemberdayaan, or empowerment — encompassed women’s rights. The years following the fall of Suharto, known as reformasi, have brought gains for women. But progress has been mixed.
Since reformasi, women activists have aspired to increase their voice in directly elected parliaments at national, provincial and district levels. After the first direct elections in 1999, only 8.8 per cent of seats in the national parliament were won by women. This led to demands for the 2003 law on elections to adopt a gender quota. This required parties to ensure that women comprise at least 30 per cent of candidates on party lists for multi-member electorates in national, district and provincial parliaments.
Direct elections where gender quotas apply have been held for district and provincial legislatures since 2004 but have been slower than the national parliament to achieve change. In 2009, women on average won 16 per cent of seats in provincial regional parliaments and 9 per cent at the district and municipal levels. The 2014 elections saw the proportion of women elected to provincial parliaments decline to 14.6 per cent, while there was a 14.2 per cent increase at district and municipal levels.
Read the full article here.
Indonesia’s emergency labour regulation changes spark worker anger a year out from election, but Jokowi’s government is unwavering
Just weeks ago, Indonesia’s government changed its controversial Job Creation Law – better known as the Omnibus Law – into a “Government Regulation in Lieu of Law” as it was considered an emergency to issue the regulation.
It was a sudden manoeuvre to bypass Indonesia’s Constitutional Court ruling stating the law was unconstitutional in 2021. The 2021 verdict gave the government two years to adjust the controversial law. By changing it into an emergency regulation, Indonesia government evades the possibility of the law being fully annulled.
The Omnibus Law embodies President Joko Widodo’s ambition to attract foreign investors by slashing red tape at the cost of employees’ rights.
The law made it easier for businesses to lay off employees without prior notice. No provision regulated work safety. Severance pay was lowered and temporary contracts for workers were lengthened. Its new formula to determine minimum wage also came under fire and resulted in the historically lowest annual wage increase ever in 2022.
The “new” emergency regulation – in place of the Omnibus Law that should have been annulled by now – is arguably even more problematic.
Read full article here.
Youth not in employment, education or training in Asia and the Pacific: Trends and policy considerations
Being “not in employment, education or training”, or NEET, in Asia and the Pacific encompasses a broad array of vulnerabilities among the youth and comes with consequences that include economic and employment disadvantages and limited social mobility. NEET also increases the risk of social exclusion and limits the critical contribution of young women and men to economies and societies. Significant efforts are needed to accelerate progress towards the reduction of the youth NEET rates by 2030, as pledged under Sustainable Development Goal 8 (indicator 8.6.1).
Even prior to the COVID-19 crisis, almost one in every four young persons aged 15–24 in the region in 2019 was NEET (ILO and ADB 2020). Young women accounted for nearly three quarters of youth who were NEET at that time. Youth in the region continue to face pressing and persistent labour market challenges, which is reflected in low wages and other decent work deficits.
During the first years of the COVID-19 crisis, the disproportionate labour market impact on youth employment outcomes manifested through three channels: First, young people experienced disproportionate job disruptions in terms of reduced working hours and lay-offs due to their overrepresentation in low-productivity and low-paid jobs and in hard-hit sectors of the economy. Second, the disruptions to education, training and work-based learning hampered their chance to improve employability through upskilling and reskilling. Third, the combination of the sharp reduction in demand during the crisis and the lack of skills development initiatives posed difficulties in the labour market transitions of young jobseekers and new labour market entrants who were also competing with more experienced older workers and peers. The situation for youth was exacerbated by a deterioration in the global labour market recovery due to multiple and interlinked crises, from food to energy crises, as well as increasing inequalities within and between countries (ILO 2022a).
Download the full report here.
Take Five: "I am also your child, and you should treat me equally."
Tosiba Akter (pseudonym), 16, is working to end violence against women and girls in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. She has finished her secondary school examinations and aims to become a magistrate. She participates in UN Women’s project, Means to Lead: Empowering Rohingya Refugee and Host Community Women through Leadership, Learning, and Livelihoods, implemented by Oxfam Bangladesh. She is a member of the Girls’ Group at the UN Women Multi-purpose Women’s Centre and is mentored by staff of Mukti Cox’s Bazar, a local non-governmental organization and project implementing partner of Oxfam Bangladesh.
How do social and cultural norms affect violence against women and girls in Bangladesh?
Harmful social and cultural norms encourage violence against women and girls. Most villagers in my area believe that girls' education is not necessary and that it is pointless to spend money on it. Early marriage is preferable for girls, which relieves economic pressure on parents. According to the religious norms of my area, women and girls are supposed to stay at home. Most of the people in the area search for a female doctor when their female family members become sick, but they don’t let their girls’ become doctors. Most men believe they must control women, and men are allowed to have multiple marriages. Most of the men take dowries for marriages, and they think that they deserve it.
Read the full article here.
The Future Forecast: Asia in 2023
At the end of each year, as the winter holidays begin to unfold with the promise of family and good cheer, we ask our experts across Asia to reveal what the New Year has in store. And every year, they tell us the same thing: it’s hard to predict the future in the world’s most rapidly changing region.
The last three years certainly helped make that point, as unexpected events on the world stage made our best attempts at futurism seem futile—from Covid-19 in 2020, to dramatic changes in Myanmar and Afghanistan in 2021, to the war in Ukraine, which abruptly shuffled the economic deck for countries throughout Asia in 2022.
But here’s one thing we do know: our “Predictions” edition is consistently a reader favorite. And if anyone has their finger on the future, it’s our astute development experts with their ears to the ground. So here is a selection of 17 predictions for the year ahead in Asia.
Read the full report here.
Asia-Pacific Employment and Social Outlook
Labour markets in Asia and the Pacific have only partially recovered from the COVID-19 crisis. It has been a few rough years for governments, workers and enterprises in the Asia–Pacific region. Labour market recovery in the region lags behind global levels. Job growth did occur in 2021 and 2022, recovering from the 3.1 per cent drop in employment in 2020. By 2022, employment numbers in the Asia– Pacific region were 2.0 per cent above the pre-crisis level of 2019. On the surface, the employment trends look positive. Digging deeper, there remain numerous signs that the region’s labour market is not yet back on its pre-crisis track.
While employment growth was again positive, the employment-to-population ratio in 2022 remained still slightly below pre-crisis trend, at 56.2 per cent in 2022 from 56.9 per cent in 2019.
Compared to where job numbers would be in Asia and the Pacific had the disruption of the COVID-19 crisis never happened, there is a continued jobs gap of 22 million (1.1 per cent) in 2022. The jobs gap is projected to increase again to 26 million (1.4 per cent) in 2023 given the headwinds to growth foreseen in current geopolitical global and regional context.
The aggregate hours of work in the region was not yet back to pre-crisis levels. The working- hour losses in the first three quarters of 2022 compared to the fourth quarter of 2019 amounted to an estimated 1.5 per cent (1.9 per cent for men and 0.5 per cent for women).
At nearly 105 million, the regional unemployment number was still 12 per cent higher in 2022 than in 2019 and the regional unemployment rate was still 0.5 percentage points above the 2019 rate, at 5.2 per cent.
The number of persons outside the labour force remains inflated above the pre-crisis level for men and women, youth and adult and across all subregions.
The gradual decline in the number of persons in informal employment at the regional level through 2019 was reversed during the crisis, as was the decline in vulnerable employment. As a result, the slow decline in the informal employment rate and vulnerable employment rate has stalled.
Download full report here.
What’s happened this year in the global labour market?
A raft of interconnected crises, compounded by the war in Ukraine and COVID-19 pandemic, are creating a worsening outlook for the global labour market, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). The 10th edition of its Monitor on the World of Work estimates that the level of hours worked worldwide was 1.5% below pre-pandemic levels for the third quarter of 2022. That amounts to a deficit of 40 million full-time jobs. And the situation is only likely to get worse in the near future.
A combination of economic and political crises is putting global labour market recovery in jeopardy, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).
The ILO’s Monitor on the World of Work report says the Ukraine conflict has made recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic harder, especially in lower-income countries.
At current rates of progress it will take 60 years to close the work hours gender gap between women and men.
Not much more than a year ago, 94% of workers around the world were experiencing workplace closures because of COVID-19 restrictions. And “while the gradual lifting of controls has enabled economic activity to return… there have been significant differences in labour market trends between and within countries”.
Employment in most advanced economies has now either reached or surpassed levels before the COVID-19 pandemic, with labour shortages occurring in some of them. However, economies in low- and middle-income countries have found it harder to recover.
The ILO says that pandemic spillover effects, together with “a set of multiple and overlapping crises” made worse by the Ukraine conflict, have fuelled inflation causing real wages to fall in many countries around the world. Food and energy inflation are affecting households the most. While slowdowns in economic growth are also reducing demand for workers as uncertainty affects hiring.
Read the full article here.
Monitor on the world of work: International Labour Organisation (ILO)
Multiple crises threaten recovery
While the impact of COVID-19 has waned in most countries, multiple and overlapping economic and political crises are threatening labour market recovery around the world. These crises are likely to further increase labour market inequalities due to the disproportionate impact on certain groups of workers and firms, while contributing to a growing divergence between developed and developing economies. The latter had already been recovering more slowly from the COVID-19 pandemic, and are now facing less policy space to protect hard-hit workers and enterprises during the most recent crises.
Recovery in hours worked remains uneven and is now threatened by slowdown
The encouraging recovery in hours worked seen at the beginning of 2022 has not continued, although there continue to be significant differences between regions and income groups. Estimates indicate that in the third quarter of 2022, hours worked were 1.5 per cent below the level of the fourth quarter of 2019 (the pre-crisis benchmark), equivalent to a deficit of 40 million full-time jobs. Also, progress in narrowing the gender gap in hours worked is at risk because of the slowdown in recovery.
Divergence in employment persists
In the first half of 2022, employment-to-population ratios had returned to or exceeded the pre-crisis level in the majority of advanced economies, while in most middle-income countries with available data, employment deficits persisted relative to the pre- crisis situation. Available data shows that high-skilled occupations (managers, professionals, and technicians and associate professionals) had experienced a stronger recovery by 2022 Q2 compared with low- and medium-skilled occupations, including services and sales workers, which remain below the level of the same quarter in 2019.
Download the full report here.