Macroeconomic and Sectoral Policies for a Sustained Job Recovery

The current fallout from the COVID-19 and geo-political tensions as well as incomplete and lagging labour market recoveries from previous financial crises have created a keen interest among policymakers and social partners on how to mainstream jobs and decent work into recovery and development agendas, including through macroeconomic and sectoral policies. In this context, the International Training Centre of the ILO and the ILO Employment Policy Department have joined forces to organize this e-learning course as a response to repeated request made by ILO’s constituents to strengthen the role of economic and sectoral policies as part of its mandate to promote employment and decent work. OBJECTIVES The course provided a comprehensive hands-on overview of the policy instruments and analytical tools that support policy makers, analysts and practitioners through a better understanding on how sectoral strategies and structural transformation occur and how they impact on productive employment creation, in particular on the most vulnerable and hardest hit groups by the COVID-19. It also provided a better understanding on how macroeconomic frameworks and skills development systems may support structural change and economic diversification. Finally, the course helped participants obtain a systematic overview of relevant economic and sectoral policies for decent work and inclusive growth that the ILO’s research and technical assistance have helped identify in collaboration with prominent academics and research institutions and other multilateral organizations. CONTENT In particular, the course covered the following topics: • Module 1: Labour market issues, trends and the policy challenge of recovery • Module 2: Macroeconomic support • Module 3: Gender-responsive macroeconomic policies • Module 4: Identifying promising sectors for decent jobs • Module 5: Skills development for structural transformation • Module 6: Implementing inclusive and sustainable sectoral strategies for building resilience