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Pakistan has one of the lowest rates of female labor force participation in Asia. Only 22 per cent of women participated in the labor force in Pakistan in 2019 compared to an average of 24 per cent in the South Asia region, and 59 per cent in the East Asia and Pacific region. Cultural and social norms surrounding women's responsibilities at home, their travel outside the home, and their interaction with unrelated men create multiple barriers for women who may be eager to enter the workforce. While the lack of safe opportunities for transport acts as a constraint for mobility to work for many women, the lack of viable options for childcare limits others from working. In such a setting, it becomes especially important to ensure that women who do manage to overcome these barriers and enter the workforce find workplace environments that they deem safe and comfortable.

The provision of basic workplace services and policies - such as separate toilet spaces, separate prayer areas, transport to work, and predictable work hours - could be fundamental to retaining female talent in organizations and encouraging other women to enter the labor market. In this policy brief, results are used from a representative sample of firms surveyed across Lahore, Pakistan, to understand which of these provisions are offered by employers in urban Pakistan to female employees, and how the availability of these provisions varies with employers' interest in hiring women. These results shed light on how comfortable workspaces in Lahore currently are for women and the extent to which they can be made more favorable, both for women who are currently employed, and those who wish to join the labor force.

Edited excerpts from publication. Show less

This paper examines the impact of industrial robots on jobs by combining data on robot adoption and occupations by industry in 37 economies for the period 2005-2015. The authors exploit differences across industries in technical feasibility, that is the industry's share of tasks replaceable by robots, to identify the impact of robot usage on employment. The data allow them to differentiate effects by the routine intensity of employment. The authors find that a rise in robot adoption relates significantly to a fall in the employment share of routine manual task-intensive jobs in high-income economies, but not in emerging market and transition economies.

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Demographic changes, urbanization, and rapid technological advances are disrupting labor markets across the south east Asian region and have spurred demand for new, more specialized skills. One of the primary objectives of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community is to encourage skilled labor mobility to address shortages, promote knowledge transfer, and boost productivity. This book examines the current situation, trends, challenges, and opportunities in the region. It includes analysis of the economic impact of free skilled-labor flows on specific sectors and the broader economy. The book discusses the importance of the free movement of skilled workers in Southeast Asia. It assesses current challenges and opportunities and suggests a range of enabling policy measures.

Edited excerpt from publisher's website.

The chapters are as follows: Trends and patterns in intra-ASEAN migration / Aiko Kikkawa and Eric B. Suan (pages 1-24); Skilled migration in the literature: what we know, what we think we know, and why it matters to know the difference / Elisabetta Gentile (pages 25-56); Economic impact of skilled labor mobility within the ASEAN Economic Community / Erwin Corong and Angel Aguiar (pages 57-88); Implications of ASEAN economic integration on services: a global computable general equilibrium analysis / Kakali Mukhopadhyay (pages 89-123); Employment effects of removal of restrictions on the movement of natural persons in the ASEAN banking sector / Huong Dinh (pages 124-163); Skills mobility and postsecondary education in the ASEAN Economic Community / Maki Kato (pages 164-193); Institutionalized costs and international migration patterns / Saibal Kar (pages 194-208); Expanding skilled-worker mobility: comparing the migration of Indonesian careworkers to Taipei, China and Indonesian nurses and careworkers to Japan / Ratih Pratiwi Anwar (pages 209-240); Will ASEAN mutual recognition arrangements induce skilled workers to move?: a case study of the engineering labor market in Thailand / Sasiwimon Warunsiri Paweenawat and Jessica Vechbanyongratana (pages 241-266); Skill flows and the Fourth Industrial Revolution: future questions and directions for the ASEAN Economic Community / Anna Fink and Elisabetta Gentile (pages 267-292). Show less