Global Research Symposium

Labour Market Transitions of Young Women and Men: Innovative research from 30 school-to-work transition survey datasets

An international forum for sharing results of the second ILO’s Call for Papers on labour market transition of young women and men in developing countries. The Symposium, organized in partnership with the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), offers an opportunity for researchers and development practitioners to discuss innovative research on themes of youth employment and labour market transitions and applicability to policy and programme advice and implementation.

Agenda

Background:

Young people face numerous challenges when entering the labour market particularly in developing economies. Not only do they need to find a job, and preferably one that corresponds to their level of qualifications, they also want to develop a foundation for a lasting, stable employment relationship that helps them to progress in life. To better characterize these challenges, the ILO developed the School-to-work Transition Survey (SWTS), a household survey of young people aged 15-29 years, and engaged in a widespread implementation of the survey in 34 low- and middle-income countries with the support of The MasterCard Foundation.

The surveys offer a wealth of information on the characteristics of education, conditions of work, aspirations and labour market transitions of young people, captured in the survey’s unique assessment of respondents’ history of labour market activities. All related SWTS microdata files, as well as the current national, thematic and regional reports, are already available. 

SWTS datasets are available for the following 28 countries:

  • Asia and the Pacific: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, Samoa, Viet Nam
  • Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Armenia, FYR Macedonia, Kyrgyzstan, Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, Russian Federation, Serbia, Ukraine
  • Latin America and the Caribbean: Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Jamaica, Peru   
  • Middle East and North Africa: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Tunisia
  • Sub-Saharan Africa: Benin, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia

About the Research Symposium:
Organizers: Work4Youth, ILO Youth Employment Programme, Employment Policy Department

Place:Room XI, ILO Headquarters, Geneva - Switzerland

Date: 23-24 March 2016 
In September 2015, the ILO in partnership with the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) issued a second Call for Papers with the objective of offering researchers worldwide the opportunity to use the SWTS as a primary tool for innovative analysis of youth employment. Prominent youth employment experts and labour market researchers selected eight papers from over 50 submissions. The authors of the eight papers are invited to present their work at the main sessions of the Global Research Symposium.

The papers to be discussed are all based on the results of the recent SWTSs. Topics include:
  • Intergenerational occupational mobility among youth
  • Inequality of opportunity and (unequal) opportunities in the youth labour market
  • Employment and wage ‘scarring’ when youth unemployment is extremely high
  • Job satisfaction of youth in Sub-Saharan Africa: a comparative analysis
If you are interested in attending the Global Research Symposium or would like additional information, please contact Marco Minocri (minocri@ilo.org) - +41 22 799 8693