Technological transformations in Latin America: promoting productive jobs and confronting the challenge of new forms of informal employment (ECLAC)

Old and new forms of labour informality, linked to the structural heterogeneity of Latin America’s productive structure and emerging types of labour relations based on new technologies, present an obstacle towards achieving the SDGs. This project supported seven Latin American countries that had established these issues as central to their development agendas with the goals of identifying policy options to reduce labour informality and prepare to cope with the challenges regarding the impact of new technologies in the future of work, with key policy instruments for “leaving no one behind”. More specifically, the project strengthened the capacity of these countries to design public policies aimed at reducing existing and emerging forms of labour market informality while taking advantage of the potential of new technologies for the creation of decent work. Despite the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, the project was able to redesign original activities from in-person to virtual delivery. In total, 1,117 people participated in the project’s activities, including regional seminars, national workshops, trainings and a study tour. In one project country, the document with analysis and recommendations on digital work was used in the national debate for a new policy draft, and finally in 2022 the country approved a new national policy regulating, for the first time, on working conditions for digital platform workers. Project analysis and recommendations were also used in the debate on new regulations in other two countries.  In one project country, three innovative methodologies were developed to use data from the first occupational survey in the region to measure occupational distances in terms of skills required, link skills and competencies needed for different occupations with education and training provided in the country and measure digital skills to assess how well workers were prepared for the future of work. In a second project country, the assistance provided resulted in the systematization of data in the public registry of informal workers, analysis of information and provision of policy recommendations. In another project country, a study was undertaken using a methodology to estimate the risk of informality at the subnational level, including issues of social protection for informal workers and new forms of informal work related to COVID-19. A research paper on the impact of artificial intelligence on the labour market was also produced. This study shows some concrete examples on how new technologies can interact with humans in order to avoid job destruction and improve productivity. It introduces and promotes a new subject for policy debate in the region. Knowledge management was another important component of the project, with 23 documents published online and downloaded over 55,400 times and a bilingual webpage created to serve as a permanent repository for the project’s products and activities, including recordings of online presentations, presenting such topics as the methodology to estimate labour informality, as well as key messages from policy documents that can be used for dissemination and further training.