ABSTRACT
The post-MDG development agenda, i.e., the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in 2015 – with 2030 as the terminal year for attaining the goals – includes full and productive employment and decent work in one of the goals to be pursued. If this goal is to be pursued seriously by developing countries, it is necessary to start from how the notion of full and productive employment can be conceptualized from a practical point of view. Two broad strands can be found in the discussion on full employment and policies for maintaining it: one is basically welfare oriented in approach and dates back to the early twentieth century while the other is more economic in approach and relatively younger in terms of age. Use of the “expanded framework” for assessing progress in creating productive employment at the country level would make considerable demand on data.
