ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates that employment and structural economic transformation are two interconnected phenomena that determine the growth and development trajectories of countries. At the micro level, employment creation provides opportunities for earnings and underpins the increases in household expenditures and secure livelihoods. At the macro level, development occurs through the reallocation of labour towards sectors with the greatest growth potential and the highest productivity. Jobs also facilitate social welfare such as female wage employment and rise in living standards. The analysis of structural transformation enables to unearth the historical evolutionary roots of long-term unemployment as well as the immediate causes of both rural and urban unemployment.
