East Asian Labor Markets and the Economic Crisis
Impacts, Responses & Lessons
Description:... The sudden, and often painful consequences of the financial crisis in East and Southern Asia, led to disappearing employment, and earning opportunities in the formal sector, reduced incomes, and meager social assistance. Thus, these difficult events of the late 1990s, raised questions for the region's countries, regarding the labor market aspects of the crisis, and the needed labor policy reforms for the long term. It is in this framework that the World Bank, and the International Labor Organization (ILO) sponsored a series of papers on policy options, i.e., unemployment benefits, active labor market programs, support for vulnerable groups, and social dialogue, which were presented at the Tokyo Workshop in October 1999. This book includes those country reports, and international policy papers, in a revised form to reflect the seminar discussions. It describes how regional labor markets were affected, and how governments, and communities responded, and, looks forward in setting out the labor policy options for the future, based on international experience. A follow-up project, will focus on the application of active, and passive labor programs, to be discussed at a regional seminar in early 2001.
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