Poverty and the world of work: A global overview of trends

Abstract

This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of poverty in the world today – covering both recent trends and the current situation – taking into consideration income‐based poverty as well as non‐income dimensions, such as access to basic services. It also examines the incidence of poverty across a range of socio‐economic groups, geographic regions, employment statuses and skill levels. Estimates of poverty used in this chapter have been compiled for over 100 countries across developed, emerging and developing countries, representing around 85 per cent of the global population. This is the first time that data of this nature have been collected for such a wide range of countries, permitting a novel analysis of the role of decent work in tackling poverty in all its dimensions.