Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/229390 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Working Paper No. 2020/166
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
Youths in the Middle East and North Africa face the highest unemployment rates in the world. Those who are employed are pushed to accept informal sector jobs that are insecure, unsafe, and lack non-wage benefits. Precarious employment is pervasive among lower socioeconomic groups, leading to the perpetuation of misery across generations. Understanding employment outcomes therefore requires a broad focus encompassing the access to decent work, the evolution in this access over time, and the initial conditions. We analyse the static nature of vulnerable employment-especially youth unemployment and informality-and workers' transitions to decent work using multinomial logistic regressions and recent Labour Market Panel Surveys for Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia. We find growing trends of vulnerable employment, particularly for youth cohorts. Especially in Egypt and Tunisia, children of poorer and lesseducated parents start out in vulnerable jobs and are unlikely to ever attain formal employment. Wealth effects follow them throughout their careers.
Subjects: 
vulnerable employment
informality
youth unemployment
Middle East and NorthAfrica
multinomial logistic regressions
JEL: 
J21
J46
J62
N35
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-92-9256-923-5
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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