Papers and Briefs

October 2022

  1. ILO Working paper 81

    Key workers in Malaysia during the pandemic

    17 October 2022

    During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Malaysian government prioritized health and economic stimulus packages for the sectors considered “key” for the economy and gave little recognition to the workers making contributions to the functioning of daily lives.

September 2022

  1. ILO Working paper 79

    COVID-19 Among Migrant Farmworkers in Canada: Employment Strain in a Transnational Context

    20 September 2022

    This study analyzes the conditions that migrant farmworkers in Canada endured prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic (January 2020-March 2022).

  2. ILO Working paper 78

    Labour market policies for inclusiveness: A literature review with a gap analysis

    07 September 2022

    This paper reviews the role of specific fiscal spending and transfer programmes in shaping labour market dynamics by disentangling different macroeconomic and microeconomic mechanisms.

August 2022

  1. ILO Working paper 77

    The effects of COVID-19 on businesses: key versus non-key firms

    30 August 2022

    This paper analyzes how a specific differentiation by governments throughout the world – whether a sector was deemed “essential” or “key” – affected firm performance.

  2. ILO Working paper 76

    The role of tripartite social dialogue in facilitating a just transition: Experiences from selected countries

    30 August 2022

    This Working Paper analyses the role of tripartite social dialogue in supporting green workplaces and, more generally, promoting just transitions at enterprise level.

  3. ILO Working paper 75

    Using Online Vacancy and Job Applicants’ Data to Study Skills Dynamics

    18 August 2022

    This paper finds that big data on vacancies and applications to an online job board can be a promising data source for studying skills dynamics, especially in countries where alternative sources are scarce. To show this, we develop a skills taxonomy, assess the characteristics of such online data, and employ natural language processing and machine-learning techniques. The empirical implementation uses data from the Uruguayan job board BuscoJobs, but can be replicated with similar data from other countries.

July 2022

  1. ILO Working paper 72

    Why should we integrate income and employment support? A conceptual and empirical investigation

    18 July 2022

    This paper conceptualizes, for the first time, the implementation of policy approaches that integrate active labour market policies within income support schemes, focusing on low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). We develop a conceptual framework to understand how integrated policies can address labour market challenges, exploring the theoretical effects they exert on selected labour market and social dimensions. We compare this to the empirical literature, which does not always find that policies are effective. To reconcile this discrepancy, we investigate the design and implementation of integrated approaches across LMIC and identify factors which contribute to their effectiveness.

  2. ILO Working paper 71

    How corporate social responsibility and sustainable development functions impact the workplace: A review of the literature

    11 July 2022

    This report sets out to analyse the emergence and distinctive impact of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development (CSR/SD) functions and professionals within organizations. By evaluating the literature on this topic, it seeks to clarify how leveraging the already established CSR/SD functions and professionals across organizations can contribute to the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) objective of achieving a future of work that provides decent and sustainable work opportunities for all.

June 2022

  1. Publication

    Historical perspectives on the International Labour Review 1921–2021: A century of research on the world of work

    22 June 2022

    This article analyses the history of the International Labour Review (ILR), which was created in 1921, based on the provisions of Article 396 of the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, as a major periodical publication of the International Labour Organization (ILO). The article reviews, from various perspectives, the ILR’s transformation from an institutional multipurpose periodical to today’s modern academic journal, including its institutional journey, the role of the editors in charge and the professional and academic profiles of the ILR’s authors. It studies the ILR’s contribution to important academic and policy debates and its role for the ILO by examining from a historical perspective the contents, topics and geographical focus of the almost 3,000 signed articles published to date.

  2. ILO Working paper 68

    Methodological issues related to the use of online labour market data

    22 June 2022

    This paper provides a mapping of existing research that employs online labour market data in countries of different income levels. It discusses the potential of these data for understanding labour market phenomena, such as those related to skills, and examines available tools for dealing with issues of non-representativeness and data fluctuations.