The Asia-Pacific economies employ around
two thirds of the world’s workforce, though
over the past two decades that proportion has
been falling.
In 2008, China with 752 million workers, India
with 452 million, and Indonesia with 103 million,
accounted for 43.4% of world employment, and
68% of employment in the Asia-Pacific region.
Among the subregions, the shares of East and
North-East Asia and North and Central Asia of the
region’s total employment are declining, while that
of South and South-West Asia and South-East Asia
are increasing in line with their growth in
population and their rates of labour force
participation.
While employment has been increasing, the
growth has slowed. From the high rates registered
in 2006, average annual growth in employment fell
in 2008. Compared to the 2% growth in the two
previous years, world employment in 2008 grew by
only 1.4%. Of the world regions, Africa registered
the highest growth in employment in 2008 (2.9%) –
a slight decline from the average growth of 3.0%
since 2000. The Asia-Pacific region experienced its
slowest growth in employment since 1991, with a
drop from 1.9% in 2007 to 1.3% in 2008, and
continued to grow at a rate slower than the world
average.
Figure 17.1 - Share of world employment: 2008
Among the Asia-Pacific subregions, employment
in 2008 grew more rapidly only in South and
South-West Asia, where all countries except
Pakistan and Sri Lanka had higher growth rates than
in 2007. In Sri Lanka, employment growth
decelerated rapidly – from 3.2% in 2006 to 1.8% in
2008. North and Central Asia suffered a reversal.
After recording the highest growth in employment
in 2007, of 3.4%, the subregion registered a
negative growth of -0.2% in 2008 – with all the
countries experiencing slowdowns.
Figure 17.2 - Asian economies with declining employment growth between 2007 and 2008
In South-East Asia, employment growth was
slower for all countries except for Brunei
Darussalam, Viet Nam and Singapore. The
Philippines, with a 4.1 percentage point decline
from 2007 to 2008, changed from being the
subregion’s fastest-growing labour market to one of its slowest. In East and North-East Asia,
employment growth has been declining since 2000.
In 2008 its growth of only 0.4% reflected slower
growth in Mongolia and China.
Labour productivity
Annual labour productivity decelerated in 2008
in all global regions. Of these, Asia and the Pacific
still had the fastest growth – despite seeing its
growth rate fall from 5.7% in 2007 to 3.1% in 2008.
Among the Asia-Pacific subregions, labour
productivity growth slowed in almost all in 2008;
the exception was North and Central Asia where
between 2007 and 2008 its growth rate increased
from 5.3 to 5.8%. In South-East Asia, productivity
growth has been slower than in other subregions,
having decelerated in all countries from the high
rates attained in the early 2000s.
In North and Central Asia, eight of the nine
countries belonged to the 10 countries in Asia with
the highest rates of productivity growth. In this
subregion, productivity growth in Kazakhstan
decelerated to a standstill in 2008. The high-income
economies of Australia, Japan, Turkey, New Zealand and Singapore all had negative productivity growth.
Figure 17.3 - Growth rates in labour productivity, Asia and the Pacific, 2000-2005 and 2008
Employment by sector
Agriculture remains a major employer, though
its significance is declining. In 2008, it employed
56% of the workforce in Africa, and 40% of that in
Asia and the Pacific. Elsewhere, most employment
is generated by the services sector: in North
America, 8.1%; in Europe, 65.7%; and in Latin
America and the Caribbean, 62.6%.
In the Asian and Pacific subregions, the
declining share of agricultural employment has
been mainly taken up by the services sector, with at
least a 30% share for all subregions. This is
particularly true for North and Central Asia where
employment in agricultural has historically been
much lower than that in services; in 2008, services
accounted for 57% of total employment.
Industry remains the smallest employer. Since
2000, the share of employment in the industrial
sector for the Asia-Pacific region as a whole has
been rising but in 2008 it still accounted for less
than a quarter of total employment.
Estimates of total employment are based on
counts of persons in the “working age” population,
which for international comparisons is defined as
persons aged 15 years old and above who were
economically active during a brief reference period.
Worldwide, the proportion of the working age
population who are employed – the employment-topopulation
ratio – has hovered around 61% over
the last 18 years. Throughout that period, the Asia-
Pacific region had the highest proportion, although
between 1991 and 2008, it fell from 65.5 to 62.3%.
Figure 17.4 - Employment-to-population ratio, 1991-2008
In East and North-East Asia and South-East
Asian in 2008, around two thirds of the working age
population were employed. In North and Central
Asia, and South and South-West Asia, the
proportion has historically been lower – and in
2008 was 57.1% and 55.5% respectively.
Women of working age are less likely to be
employed than men. This is especially so in South
and South-West Asia. In 2008, while 77% of men of
working age were employed, for women the
proportion was only 32.9% – and this was a drop
from 33.5% in 1991. In 2008 this subregion had
eight of the ten countries with the lowest
proportions of women employed – 44% or less. In
contrast, for the same eight countries, at least 70%
of working age men were employed – or 1.5 times
higher than the figure for women.
Figure 17.5 - Employment-to-population ratio, 1991 and 2008
A number of countries have seen falls in the
proportion of women employed. Although women
in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic,
Cambodia, Myanmar, Viet Nam, Thailand and
China had at least a 60% chance of being employed
in 2008, these chances are lower than they were in
1991. This drop is most pronounced in Afghanistan
where the proportion of working-age women who
are employed has historically been low.
Figure 17.6 - Female employment-to-population ratio, 2008
Figure 17.7 - Countries where women's employment-to-population ratio declined between 1991 and 2008
Vulnerable employment
Most employed persons in the Asia-Pacific
region, as in Africa, are own-account or
contributing family workers. These workers are
often in “vulnerable employment” – generating low
incomes and having no social protection. In other
regions of the world, on the other hand, the bulk of
employed persons are employees.
In Asia and the Pacific, employment status
differs between subregions. In South and South-West
Asia in 2008, over 70% of workers were in
vulnerable employment while in North and Central
Asia 82% were employees. High-income countries
generally have only a small proportion of worker in
vulnerable employment.
Figure 17.8 - Status in employment, 2008
Figure 17.9 - Proportion of workers in vulnerable employment, 2008
Unemployment
Since 62.3% of the working age population in
Asia and the Pacific were working in 2008, the
remaining 37.7% were either unemployed or not
economically active. The Asia-Pacific unemployment
rate has been lower than the world average and
since 1991 has been stable at around 5.0% – largely
because the bulk of the workforce is absorbed by
own-account work in the informal sector and in
subsistence farming.
Figure 17.10 - Unemployment rate, 1991-2008
Among all Asian subregions, unemployment
has been highest in North and Central Asia, where
most workers are in paid employment. The
unemployment rate has fluctuated along with the
economic downturns in the last two decades. The
decreasing trend since 2000 was halted by an upturn
in 2008. In South-East Asia, by contrast,
unemployment increased between 2000 and 2005,
but started to decline thereafter.
The gender pattern varies between subregions.
Women were more likely to be unemployed than
men in South and South-West Asia and in South-East
Asian, while the opposite was true in the other
subregions. Among individual countries, Sri Lanka,
Pakistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran and
Indonesia, female unemployment rates exceed
those for males.
Figure 17.11 - Unemployment rate by sex, 2008
Unemployment is usually higher for younger
people. Worldwide, and in the Asia-Pacific region,
the unemployment rate for the 15-24 age group is
twice as high as for the workforce as a whole, and it
has been increasing over the last 18 years. However,
in this age group there are only small gender
differences – and even these have been diminishing.
Figure 17.12 - Youth unemployment rates, Asia-Pacific sub-regions, 1991-2008
In North and Central Asia and in East and
North-East Asia, youth unemployment rates have
declined since the late 1990s though between 2007
and 2008 they rose. After rising from 1996 to 2005,
youth unemployment in South-East Asia started to
decline, but registered an upturn in 2008. |
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