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This paper proposes a multidimensional synthetic index for measuring the quality of employment using the Alkire–Foster method. The results generated by this index highlight important differences between Chile's regions, but also a process of convergence, which has been mostly driven by regulatory changes and public policy rather than economic growth. The paper shows how much a synthetic index can contribute to regional analysis and how it can inform policymakers by focusing attention on the most vulnerable workers in regional labour markets.

This paper uses a multi-dimensional methodology for measuring the quality of employment (QoE) across Chile's regions using household survey data from 1996 – 2017. The paper shows how much a regional perspective can add to an analysis of the QoE and how it can inform policy makers in a way that goes beyond traditional variables such as participation or unemployment rates, which are not always good indicators of labour market performance in developing countries with large informal sectors. Building on previous work that measures QoE deprivation, we use the Alkire/Foster (AF) method to construct a synthetic indicator of the quality of employment (QoE) at an individual level. We select three dimensions that must be considered as both instrumentally and intrinsically important to workers: income, job security and employment conditions. Job security is then divided into two sub-dimensions (occupational status and job tenure), as is employment conditions (social security affiliation and excessive working hours). A threshold is then established within each dimension and sub-dimension to determine whether a person is deprived or not within each dimension, before calculating composite levels of deprivation. The results generated by this index highlight important differences between Chile's regions, but also a process of convergence, which has been driven by employment regulation on minimum wages and the statutory working week in particular. National policies such as the improvement of educational standards have also contributed to this process. On the one hand, this paper illustrates the importance of public policies in labour market performance, and on the other, the index also enables policy makers to focus more precisely on the most vulnerable groups of workers in the labour market. This paper opens up important avenues for future research: once a QoE index has been developed, it can be used to track workers' employment trajectories using either panel or administrative dat

This paper proposes a methodology for measuring Quality of Employment (QoE) deprivation from a multidimensional perspective in six Central American countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama) using a dataset specifically designed to measure employment conditions. Building on previous work on multidimensional poverty and employment indicators, the paper uses the Alkire/Foster (AF) method to construct a synthetic indicator of the QoE at an individual level. It selects four dimensions that must be considered as essential to QoE deprivation: income, job stability, job security and employment conditions. These dimensions then subdivide into several indicators, a threshold for each indicator and dimension is established before defining an overall cut-off line that allows for the calculation of composite levels of deprivation. The results generated by this indicator show that Central American countries can be divided into three distinct and robust performance groups in terms of their QoE deprivation. Overall, approximately 60% of the deprivation levels are attributable to non-income variables, such as occupational status and job tenure. The methodology used can allow policymakers to identify and focus on the most vulnerable workers in a labour market and highlights the fact that having a formal written contract is no guarantee of good job quality, particularly in the case of women.

This paper proposes a methodology for measuring the quality of employment from a multidimensional and public policy perspective in Latin American developing countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay) using household and labour force survey data from 2015. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the QoE can be measured using a multidimensional methodology that can inform policy makers about the state of their labour markets in a way that complements traditional variables such as participation or unemployment rates, which are not always good indicators of labour market performance in developing countries with large informal sectors. Building on the framework of the capability approach as well as on previous work on multidimensional poverty, we use the Alkire/Foster (AF) method to construct a synthetic indicator of the quality of employment (QoE) at an individual level. We select three dimensions that must be considered as both instrumentally and intrinsically important to workers and the functions and capabilities generated by their employment situation: income, job security and employment conditions. Job security is then divided into two sub-dimensions (occupational status and job tenure), as is employment conditions (social security affiliation and excessive working hours). A threshold is then established within each dimension and sub-dimension to determine whether a person is deprived or not within each dimension, before establishing an overall cut-off line and calculating composite levels of deprivation. The results generated by this indicator are, first, highly relevant to policy makers as they allow for the precise identification of groups of vulnerable workers as well as of dimensions and indicators, which contribute to deprivation in the labour market. Second, they extend the debate about employment in developing countries to variables not commonly considered by the literature as being critica

Job quality is becoming a higher policy priority among governments in both developing and advanced economies. In public policy and economics a ‘good’ job tends to mean a well-paid job. Other social sciences, however, recognise that employment is a multidimensional phenomenon that requires careful conceptualisation and measurement to account for other employment conditions that also have a significant impact on the wellbeing of workers. These include job stability, types of contracts, and autonomy levels. This paper summarises recent research on this topic, addresses issues of data availability, and presents empirical evidence from both Latin America and Europe to show how multidimensional deprivations or clustered disadvantages in the labour market can be measured by means of a dedicated measure of poor-quality employment. It illustrates how, in both regions, this concept better captures deprivation in labour markets than simpler indicators of wages or informal employment, which are unidimensional and do not reflect the fact that many workers are deprived in more than one aspect of their employment conditions. This conclusion should matter to public policy, which tends to focus on different aspects of deprivation separately, if at all, without considering that multidimensional deprivations compound each other and thus affect the well-being of workers very negatively.