Gerry Rogers (ed) Urban Poverty and the Labour Market: Access to lobs and Incomes in Asian and Latin American aties. Geneva: International labour Office. 1989. Price: 35 Swiss Francs (Softbound Edition).

In the period 1965 to 1985, the per capita consumption in the developing world went up by almost 70 percent. Yet one billion of the people in the developing countries today are living in poverty [World Development Report (1990)]. Despite the growth in incomes and consumption, the problem of poverty is enormous. In most development models a large reserve of low-paid workers (often rural based) is seen as a precondition for industrialization (often urban based), which in turn is seen as synonymous with development. It is the exploitation of these workers to generate the surpluses necessary for growth in the urban growth centres that forms the basis of policy in most developing countries. The very processes that generate this growth also make these workers the most vulnerable to poverty. And if stagnation or recession sets in, the results are disasterous. The book under review makes an effective contribution to focusing attention on the issues of urban poverty and the labour market.