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Government wage bills have been growing across the world, but are exceptionally high in the MENA region relative to countries’ state of development, whether measured as a share of GDP, or of government revenue and spending (World Bank, 2004). Across the region government wage bills threaten fiscal sustainability. There are many drivers behind the large wage bills, whether of central government alone or of general government. Government employment numbers also seem to grow inexorably, in many areas faster than required to deliver services in line with population growth. Other factors have been weak staff control systems, the authorization of new recruitment outside budget frameworks, and laxly applied staff performance assessment systems, in addition to absenteeism, and the difficulty under public service rules of disciplining and ultimately terminating poorly performing staff. This paper takes a look at government wage bill growth, alongside current approaches to recruitment, staff performance assessments and promotions, with particular emphasis on Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. These country examples are complemented by a broader regional analysis to illustrate overarching trends in public sector employment.The objective is to identify the various forces at work, how they interact, and thereby document and understand better the dynamic of public sector wage bill expansion in the Middle East as well as potential linkages to public sector performance. The paper also looks at reform efforts, extracts lessons and identify potential reform options to better control wage bill growth and the unbalancing effects it has had on the efficiency and effectiveness of government spending generally. Furthermore, while the paper does not present a comprehensive overview of the nature of public employment in MENA, it aims to identify potential areas for further research in this domain.

As countries become increasingly integrated into the global economy, increased trade links with other countries translate into increased access to better or cheaper imports and increased demand for exports. Both can have an impact on consumers, producers and workers through household consumption, household production, and labor incentives. The channels through which increased trade integration can affect labor include: (i) the consumption channel, typically leading to an increase in purchasing power and therefore higher real wages, and (ii) the employment effect due to increased labor demand. The extent of these gains to trade will depend on the incidence of trade policies or trade shocks; in other words, the impact will depend on which products become less expensive, which sectors increase demand for skilled or unskilled labor, and which workers can access these new jobs. This report utilizes a range of methodologies and datasets that implicitly link trade and jobs; by using these complementary analytical approaches, we generate multiple perspectives on Lao PDR’s recent labor market outcomes, and their implications for Lao PDR’s current and future trade competitiveness.

The study includes an analysis of inequality patterns in terms of labor force participation as well as a review of policy responses, and areas for possible further policy action. In particular, the report looks at the two main dimensions of inequality that characterize Macedonia’s labor market: gender and ethnicity. Almost half the female working age population is inactive, whereas male inactivity is considerably lower. Labor market outcomes also vary significantly with ethnicity. In particular, a strong interaction exists between gender and ethnicity, with ethnic minority women forming a particularly vulnerable group. Hence, it is worthwhile to investigate in more detail how gender and ethnicity shape the Macedonian labor market, and how public policy could be used to increase labor market participation and job opportunities for women and ethnic minorities. This report is organized as follows. First, the report describes the main characteristics of the Macedonian labor market, emphasizing the most important patterns of inequality in terms of labor market participation (section two). Section three addresses the possible causes of these inequality patterns. Section four discusses potential policy responses and concludes.

In economies characterized by low labor demand and high rates of youth unemployment, entrepreneurship training has the potential to enable youth to gain skills and create their own jobs. This paper presents experimental evidence on a new entrepreneurship track that provides business training and personalized coaching to university students in Tunisia. Undergraduates in the final year of licence appliquee were given the opportunity to graduate with a business plan instead of following the standard curriculum. This paper relies on randomized assignment of the entrepreneurship track to identify impacts on labor market outcomes one year after graduation. The analysis finds that the entrepreneurship track was effective in increasing self-employment among applicants, but that the effects are small in absolute terms. In addition, the employment rate among participants remains unchanged, pointing to a partial substitution from wage employment to self-employment. The evidence shows that the program fostered business skills, expanded networks, and affected a range of behavioral skills. Participation in the entrepreneurship track also heightened graduates optimism toward the future shortly after the Tunisian revolution.