Thinking Aloud: Volume II, Issue 7

The theme for the December, 2015 issue of Thinking Aloud is Skill Development. The first article “Do education and skill development affect the transition from ‘good-enough job’ to ‘decent job’?” emphasizes on the supply side issues of labor for transition towards ‘decent job’. The article, from the labor force survey data, finds that ‘good-enough’ job comprises more than 50% of both wage and self-employments. The article uses multinomial logistic regression models to explore the impacts of education and training on the quality of job that a person may avail. The regression results indicate that, while education helps moving up from ‘good-enough job’ to ‘good job’ or ‘decent job’ in case of both wage and self-employments, training impacts the transition significantly in case of wage employment. The second article, “What type of training matters most for the labor force participation decision in Bangladesh?” critically evaluates the impacts of different types of training on the choice of labor force participation. The article applies multinomial logistic regression models, and the regression results show that, in general, any type of training has a positive effect on being in wage employment. The study also focuses on how gender and education interact with training to encourage productive employment. The interview session features an interview of Dr. Edgard Rodriguez, Senior Program Specialist of IDRC, Canada. Focusing primarily on South Asia, Dr. Rodriquez elaborates on the issues related to the current job market scenario, creating decent jobs, skill of labor force and structural transformation. Dr. Rodriguez attaches immense importance to education as well as ensuring its quality in improving the labor market conditions in these countries. He also highlights the role of IDRC in promoting training and research in developing countries.