Guatemala Jobs Diagnostic
Building back better’ has become a popular theme guiding the world’s post-Covid19 recovery efforts; in few middle-income countries this appears to be more pressing than in Guatemala. Over a decade of lackluster growth and stagnating productivity im...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/422741617375500248/Guatemala-Jobs-Diagnostic http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35367 |
| Summary: | Building back better’ has become a
popular theme guiding the world’s post-Covid19 recovery
efforts; in few middle-income countries this appears to be
more pressing than in Guatemala. Over a decade of lackluster
growth and stagnating productivity improvements have led to
an acute shortage of quality jobs, the effects of which
started to show well before the Covid19 pandemic. By
applying the World Bank’s jobs diagnostics methodology and
drawing on both micro- and macro-level data covering the
period 2004–18, this report casts light on Guatemala’s most
pressing structural jobs challenges. The report first
documents Guatemala’s labor market symptoms, including high
levels of informality, declining labor earnings, low female
labor force participation, rising emigration, and limited
internal migration. The symptoms are then analyzed in-depth
to identify what drives Guatemala’s poor labor market
performance. The report finds that insufficient formal job
creation, a lacking dynamism in the formal sector, and low
quality education in rural areas are key drivers of
Guatemala’s labor market outcomes. The report concludes by
proposing a set of key strategic priorities to unleash
Guatemala’s jobs potential. |
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