Job Creation Needs in Third World Cities

Abstract

Labor forces of developing countries are growing rapidly rural-urban migration is ongoing and labor is shifting from agricultural to nonagricultural occupations. It is estimated that the economically active population in developing countries will grow by 1.2 billion over the next 35 years mostly in urban areas so that more than half of the economically active population will be in the nonagricultural sector. Substantial investments are needed to absorb this rapidly growing labor force in developing countries. If public and private sectors in developing countries can not expand investment production and employment opportunities to keep up with the growth of economically active population demographic trends will have serious adverse effects on developing countries abilities over 2 decades to achieve better standards of living. In this context this paper describes a conceptual framework for assessing the scope and dimensions of demographic and employment problems in developing countries; considers trends of urbanization and urban labor force growth in Africa Asia and Latin America; identifies principal policies and programs which governments in developing countries have used to expand employment opportunities in urban areas; and explores research implications of these trends.

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