Bhutan has a strong track record of reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity, primarilysupported by the state, which has played a large role in the country's development accomplishments.Growth has been driven mainly by the public sector through hydropower development.
... Exibir mais + Statedominance is also reflected in the existence of a large number of state-owned enterprises (SOEs).However, the dependence on hydropower has resulted in a weak private sector and also createdmacroeconomic vulnerabilities. The high import content of hydropower construction widened theexternal imbalance and increased indebtedness. In addition, tax collection at 14 percent of grossdomestic product (GDP) in 2017/18 is low by international standards. The government has taken important steps to develop the nascent private sector through investments in infrastructure and improvements in the investment climate. It has also invested heavily in education and health. Despite these laudable investments, available jobs remain vacant, while educated youthremain unemployed. While hydropower will remain dominant in the foreseeable future, Bhutan'sdemographic transition requires more concerted efforts to develop the private sector.
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Promoting the smooth integration of workers into the labor market and ensuring their early success has increasingly emerged as an important economic and social development goal around the globe.
... Exibir mais + The Nepal government sees addressing the social and economic challenges of youth, and leveraging their social and economic prospects, as critical for the country's economic growth and development. There has been limited systematic, policy-oriented empirical research conducted on labor and livelihoods in Nepal. Dedicated examinations of Nepalese youth labor are rarer still. The book Youth Employment in Nepal aims to improve understanding of the labor conditions, behaviors, and outcomes of Nepalese youth, which it examines in relation to both Nepal's domestic labor market and labor migration by Nepalese youth to India and other countries. Such migration includes the temporary "foreign employment" of Nepalese workers under bilateral labor agreements between Nepal and destination countries. The book seeks to present insights and implications for research and public policy, with the goal of improving the labor prospects of Nepalese youth. The findings in the book point to three directions for orienting public policies and programs. First is raising rural labor productivity, urban labor demand, and urban worker–job matching efficiency. Second is supporting the labor market integration of rural youth migrating to urban parts of Nepal and of youth labor migrants returning from India and other countries. Third is improving the orientation and efficacy of labor skill training.
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Promoting the smooth labor market integration and early labor market success of workers has increasingly become an important economic and social development aim globally.
... Exibir mais + The Nepal government sees addressing the social and economic challenges of youth, and leveraging their social and economic prospects, as critical for the country's economic growth and development. This brief summarizes the findings from the report Youth Employment in Nepal. The report seeks to present insights and implications for research and public policy, with the goal of improving the labor prospects of Nepalese youth. The findings point to three directions for orienting public policy and program initiatives. First is raising rural labor productivity, urban labor demand, and urban worker–job matching efficiency. Second is supporting the labor market integration of rural youth migrating to urban parts of Nepal and of youth labor migrants returning from India and other countries. Third is improving the orientation and efficacy of labor skill training.
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This note provides practical solutions for addressing the labor-related barriers that impede Bhutan's private sector employment growth: (i) lack of workers with relevant experience and skills, (ii) restrictions on employing non-Bhutanese workers, and (iii) lack of interest among Bhutanese workers in private sector employment opportunities (Enterprise Survey 2015).
... Exibir mais + This note draws on international experience from comparable settings and identifies potential solutions: (a) improve the population's work skills to better align with market needs and to boost productivity; (b) balance local and foreign employment; and (c) increase the attractiveness of private sector jobs by extending critical benefits (primarily pensions) to its workers.
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Promoting early labor market success of workers has increasingly become an important economic and social development aim internationally, as exemplified by the 2030 United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals related to youth employment.
... Exibir mais + Many low-income countries, including Nepal, are in the middle of a youth bulge in their demographic structure. In addition, today’s youth in Nepal are, on average, more educated than past generations. These developments present real opportunities for the country. Nepal also faces risks from failing to provide sufficient, appropriate employment which is productive and remunerative to youth. International evidence suggests that the labor market challenges and behaviors of youth differ in important ways from those of the overall adult population. For example, the youth labor market outcomes are more likely to be hurt or youth are more likely to migrate out when local economic conditions are weak or deteriorate. Youth face additional barriers to labor market integration due to their relative lack of labor market experience and access to social, financial, and physical capital to establish and run their own income generating activities. Youth’s exposure to weak labor market conditions, even if the conditions are short lived, can lead to long-lasting, adverse labor market and economic outcomes over their working lives. Systematic, policy-oriented empirical research on labor and livelihoods in Nepal is limited, however. Dedicated examinations of the labor market behavior of young adults are rarer still. The literature tends to be composed of sociological studies of Nepal’s labor history, intertwined with the country’s social and political history; labor market statistical profiles and survey reports; and qualitative and empirical studies of external labor migration by Nepalese, its determinants, and its effects. These studies suggest the relatively distinct nature and evolution of Nepal’s labor market.However, apart from a few exceptions, existing studies are largely non-empirical, weak in statistical rigor, and/or biased in terms of data representativeness and coverage of labor market aspects and issues.
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The Royal Government of Bhutan (RGoB) places great emphasis on the creation of a sufficient number of high-quality jobs to achieve full employment.
... Exibir mais + This report aims to provide robust evidence to inform the RGoB’s policy-making with regard to critical labor market challenges, underlying causes and potential solutions. Building on a conceptual framework introduced in the World Bank’s World Development Report 2013: Jobs, the analysis takes into account policy fundamentals that are essential for both growth and job creation, labor market policies that can help ensure that growth translates into employment opportunities and a list of policy priority areas where jobs might do the most for development given Bhutan’s specific country context. The report relies primarily on two data sources that provide recent robust and complementary information on labor supply and demand in Bhutan: First, the Bhutan Labor Force Survey (BLFS) 2014, a representative labor force survey with a newly expanded questionnaire that was implemented by the MoLHR with support from the World Bank. Second, the Bhutan Enterprise Survey (BES) 2015, a survey of firms conducted by the World Bank that improved the understanding of the conditions, experiences and perspectives of Bhutan’s nonfarm private firms. The report also uses evidence from previous studies, legal documents, and discussions with experts and stakeholders from Bhutan and beyond.
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