Growth, Employment and Poverty

This Working Paper explores the role of employment growth in determining the effect of a given rate of economic growth on the rate of change in poverty. It is based on the findings of 16 country case studies recently carried out by the United Nations Development Programme and the International Labour Organization. The principal finding of the paper is that the rate of poverty reduction has invariably been lower than what it potentially should have been and the main reason for this is both the low employment intensity of growth and, with few exceptions, low overall growth itself.