@misc{38230,
title = {Better Jobs Index 2026 Country Data: Latin America Achieves Historic Levels of Employment Quality, Although they Remain Insufficient for Most of the Population},
author = {Azuara, Oliver and Lugo Ibarra, Mariana and Jaramillo Vasconez, Oscar Eduardo},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.18235/0014436},
abstract = {The IDB's Better Jobs Index 2026 tracks labor market quantity (participation and employment rates) and quality (formality and living-wage adequacy) across 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries from 2010 to 2024. The regional index rose from 54.9 to 58.0 over the period, driven mainly by quality gains reaching an all-time high of 40.6, while quantity remained largely stagnant at 75.4; despite this, informality stood at 69% and roughly half the working-age population still faced working poverty in 2024. Uruguay, Chile, and Brazil led the overall ranking, with quantity converging across countries even as quality gaps widened, and persistent gender (21-point) and generational (10-point) disparities remained concentrated in labor market access rather than job conditions. The report concludes that the region's core challenge is transforming existing jobs rather than merely creating new ones, proposing five priorities: reducing informality, expanding social protection and pension coverage, scaling regional best practices, strengthening skills development, and leveraging AI to boost productivity and job quality.},
url = {https://doi.org/10.18235/0014436}
}