Dualized Labor Market and Polarized Health: A Longitudinal Perspective on the Association between Precarious Employment and Mental and Physical Health in Germany

This study analyzes the longitudinal association between precarious employment and physical and mental health in a dualized labor market by disaggregating between-employee and within-employee effects and considering mobility in precariousness of employment. Analyses were based on the German Socio-Economic Panel from 2002 to 2018 considering all employees ages 18 to 67 years (n = 38,551). Precariousness of employment was measured as an additive index considering working poverty, nonstandard working time arrangements, perceived job insecurity, and low social rights. Health outcomes were mental and physical health. Random effects models were used and controlled for sociodemographic and socioeconomic variables. Results indicated that the association between precariousness of employment and mental and physical health is mainly based on between-employee differences and that prolonged precariousness of employment or upward or downward mobility are associated with poor health. We found evidence of polarization in health by precariousness of employment within a dualized labor market.

Poverty issues, including the working poverty in Russia

Subject. The poverty of the population with all features and factors of its manifestation causes deep structural problems that affect the development of the national economy. Objectives. The aim of the study is a comprehensive analysis of the poverty of the population category, using statistical data, identification of causes of the gap in the level of salaries of Russian and foreign specialists, determination of factors that have the greatest impact on the development of working poverty in Russia. Methods. The study draws on methods of logical and statistical analysis. Results. We considered approaches to the definition of poverty in Russia and other countries, analyzed absolute and relative poverty in Russia, the impact of subsistence minimum on the definition of poverty, assessed nominal and real incomes of the population. The ratio of the average per capita income of the population and the subsistence minimum decreased over the past decade, however, the poverty was not overcome during this period. The per capita income in Russia turned out to be low, real incomes continue to decline. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, a decline in wages can be traced, both in space and in time. Conclusions. Worsening the poverty situation in the country creates a chain of problems related to the distrust of the State policy in the social and labor spheres, expanded production slowdown, an increase in social tension in the society. A reduction of working poverty should be a priority task for the State.

Labour Regulations, Growth and Employment: A South Asian Perspective

Drawing on the experience of four South Asian economies (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka), this article argues that properly designed labour market institutions and regulations play a pivotal role in engendering desirable economic and social dividends. The alternative is a Hobbesian world of an unregulated labour market, which is likely to produce poor wages and working conditions. Policymakers in the region should acknowledge common challenges pertaining to low utilisation of the skills and talents of young people, entrenched gender disparities, high, and in many cases rising, informality, significant incidence of working poverty and vulnerability. They should focus on designing complementary interventions to tackle such shared challenges rather than being fixated on the narrowly conceived notion of deregulating labour markets.

Workers’ Protection in the Covid-19 Era in Nigeria

Against the backdrop of measures adopted sequel to the outbreak of the pandemic, this research focuses on the impact of Covid-19 on the workplace. It highlights and interrogates the utility of responsive measures and also articulates recondite labour issues relating to changing work patterns, pay cuts, job losses culminating in growing unemployment rate, and occupational safety and health concerns within the context of extant labour standards. It also extends focus to the impact of Covid-19 on existing challenges revolving around working poverty, decent work deficit, unfair labour practices, and ineffective labour regimes. This research finds, inter alia, that impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the workplace is colossal, disruptive, and unprecedented, and that extant labour standards, having proved mute on a wide range of contingent workplace issues, can only provide some sort of protection in a detached manner. The research concludes with an array of far-reaching recommendations on the adoption of protective and remedial legal norms that are transient, flexible, and proactive enough to accommodate diverse situations capable of undermining the prospects for labour laws, regulations, and policies in the Covid-19 era.

Strategy of the regional development and analysis of poverty and the national labor market in Russia

The strategy of the regional development must include the possible solutions of the poverty problem. On the basis of the statistical and content analysis the authors research the main trends and indicators of poverty in the regions of Russia and the labor market. The authors present the results of the research of activities of regional programs to reduce the proportion of the population with incomes below the subsistence level.Based on the study, the following conclusions can be drawn: working poor is a consequence of the existing economic system of the Russian Federation;the problem of reducing working poverty is long-term;the problem of reducing the poverty level of workers requires an integrated approach that combines economic and social policies.Addressing the problem of the working poor requires the active involvement of public authorities.

Cumulative Disparities in the Dynamics of Working Poverty for Later Career U.S. Workers (2002–2012)

Many more Americans experience working poverty than unemployed poverty, a situation that was only exacerbated by the Great Recession. The consequences of working poverty for later career workers, who should be at their highest earning ages, are particularly dire. The authors expect that later career workers are especially vulnerable in terms of the risk and duration of working poverty and that those who have accumulated disadvantages over their life courses, in terms of the intersecting dimensions of race/ethnicity, gender, early-life disadvantage, and educational attainment, will suffer disproportionately. The authors use incidence-based Markov-chain multistate models to analyze the U.S. Health and Retirement Study, which is representative of the U.S. population aged 50 years and older. The results reveal that Black women and men, Latinx, those who experienced more early-life disadvantages, and people with lower education have higher risk and longer durations in working poverty over the period from 2002 to 2012. The findings also suggest that when confronted with economic hardship (the Great Recession) later career workers who originate in lower socioeconomic statuses, especially Blacks and Latinx, are in more precarious economic positions. Important from a policy perspective, educational attainment only partially mediates the association between race/ethnicity and working poverty; disparities persist.

Inclusive growth in the fastest-growing Asian countries

The paper discusses the extent of inclusiveness of economic growth in the ten fastest-growing Asian countries between 2001 and 2019. It focuses on essential aspects of inclusiveness i.e. on poverty and inequality reduction and development of employment opportunities for poor people. The study is based on the data retrieved from the ILOSTAT and World Bank Database. In the twenty-first century, the fastest growing countries in Asia have significantly reduced poverty. However, the benefits of rapid economic growth in these countries have not been spread evenly. Income inequality has been steadily increasing in some Asian societies. Besides, economic growth in the fastest-growing countries in Asia has not been always accompanied by an increase in employment opportunities. Although unemployment is not a problem for the large part of the population in Asian countries, a lot of workers are still in extreme or moderate working poverty. Reasons behind the working poor in the fastest-growing Asian countries vary slightly from country to country but the most important are: jobless growth, high vulnerable employment in agriculture and a large part of the non-agricultural labour force working in the informal sector.