Creating jobs can help governments improve the lot of their citizens, but some jobs have more impact than others when it comes to helping societies move ahead, the World Bank said in a report on Monday.
As countries around the world struggle with high unemployment, the World Bank cautioned that economic growth alone cannot create jobs that improve people’s lives and reduce conflict.
“It is not just the number of jobs, it is also what people do,” said Martin Rama, the director of the World Bank’s annual World Development Report. This year, the report focused on how employment impacted overall well-being for societies, looking at examples culled from more than 800 surveys and censuses. As an example, Rama pointed to Mozambique, a case similar to Pakistan, where a commodities boom fueled one of the highest growth rates in sub-Saharan Africa. But more than 80% of the citizens work in agriculture, where poverty rates remained stubbornly high.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 3rd, 2012.
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