IDB and LinkedIn analysing regional job recovery, market transformation

The Inter-American Development Bank, IDB, is collaborating with career development and networking platform LinkedIn on assessing key labour indicators that have been emerging since the pandemic, with the aim of guiding recovery efforts in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The first analysis released by the collaborators assessing the transformation of the labour market indicates that there has been job growth in the digital economy and the field of technology, as well as heightened demand for technological skills in the region.

The study examines hiring rates and skill penetration, as well as specific skills needed to develop tasks in each job in critical economic sectors.

The IDB said that these indicators are both fundamental measures of the state and quality of labour markets.

According to the study, there was a 70 per cent drop in hiring in Latin America and the Caribbean at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The field of information technology, however, has seen its strongest jobs growth under the pandemic. At the opposite extreme was education, where the hiring rate has not yet rebounded to its February 2020 level.

“The trends of decline and recovery during the crisis match those we saw in our Labour Observatory, but they broaden our perspective on trends in the field of information technology,” said Laura Ripani, head of the IDB Labor Markets Division. “This information is very valuable for designing quality job recovery policies as described in the IDB Better Jobs Index,” she said.

As a priority of the IDB Vision 2025 goals, the bank has said it is seeking to harness the opportunities of the expanding digital economy to drive recovery in the region.

The IDB-LinkedIn collaboration falls under the Development Data Partnership initiative, which is an alliance between international organisations and companies that facilitates access to and responsible use of third-party data for international research and development.

The data analysed under the alliance represents a subset of the labour force: higher earners, workers in knowledge-intensive sectors, and formal employees.

The next joint report by IDB-LinkedIn will assess the penetration of green skills, that is, job skills related to sustainable activities, as well as the green jobs created or transformed.

CMC