Growth and jobs

We work to produce policy relevant research that will increase understanding of how growth can increase the number and productivity of jobs.
Factory workers in Haiti, 2013. Photo: Naomi Logan/USAID CC BY-ND 2.0

If growth is to reduce poverty it has to create jobs.  While in some countries significant numbers of jobs have been created, in others the phenomenon of ‘jobless growth’ has consigned millions to underemployment and poverty.

When asked, poor people often say that what they want most is a job.  But very little is known about how job markets actually work in very poor countries, and as a result, knowledge of how to create jobs and what role donors can play in this process is very poor.