Global Lenders Unite at ILO to Advance How Job Quality Is Measured in Development

The symposium focused on moving beyond headline employment figures to systematically capture the quality of jobs created or supported through development bank operations.

 

Leading international financial institutions (IFIs) convened at the International Labour Organization (ILO) headquarters in Geneva on 1 and 2 December 2025 for a high-level IFI Symposium on Measuring and Assessing Quality of Employment, marking a significant step toward redefining how development finance evaluates labour-market impact. The symposium focused on moving beyond headline employment figures to systematically capture the quality of jobs created or supported through development bank operations.

The gathering brought together a broad coalition of global and regional development actors, including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), African Development Bank (AfDB), European Investment Bank (EIB), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB), OPEC Fund for International Development, International Finance Corporation (IFC), IDB Invest, British International Investment (BII), Proparco, ENABEL, FMO, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), KfW, and Swedfund. They were joined by academics, labour-market specialists, and ILO experts, underscoring the shared recognition that job quantity alone is an insufficient measure of development impact.

A shared commitment to practical job-quality indicators

Opening remarks by Sangheon Lee, ILO Assistant Director-General for Jobs and Social Protection, and Peter Van Rooij, Director of the ILO Partnerships Department, reaffirmed the growing consensus that development finance must adopt practical, transparent, and internationally comparable indicators to assess employment outcomes. Speakers highlighted that while job creation remains essential, job quality determines whether employment translates into poverty reduction, resilience, and inclusive growth.

Participants reflected on earlier technical exchanges between IFIs and the ILO, which laid the groundwork for this year’s emphasis on methodological clarity, feasibility, and multidimensional measurement frameworks that can be applied across diverse country contexts.

Wages as an entry point to measuring job quality

The first thematic session examined wages and labour income as a foundational indicator of job quality. The discussion drew heavily on the World Bank’s newly introduced job-quality scorecard, which uses labour earnings as a proxy for employment quality. While acknowledging that wages alone cannot capture the full spectrum of job conditions, participants agreed that earnings data are among the most widely available and operationally feasible indicators, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where labour-market statistics remain incomplete.

ILO experts provided guidance on international wage-measurement standards, including minimum wage adequacy, living wage benchmarks, and gender pay gap analysis. They highlighted persistent challenges, such as data gaps in informal economies and limited sex-disaggregated wage data, while also pointing to progress in harmonizing methodologies across countries.

Beyond wages: informality, protection, and working time

The second session expanded the discussion to complementary dimensions of job quality, with informality emerging as a central concern. Participants emphasized that informal employment—often characterized by the absence of contracts, social protection, stable income, and safe working conditions—remains a dominant feature of labour markets in many developing regions.

Speakers stressed the need for multidimensional approaches to informality, incorporating indicators related to occupational safety and health, income volatility, exposure to risks, working hours, and access to social protection systems. These dimensions, they argued, are essential to understanding workers’ real lived experiences.

A particularly dynamic exchange focused on platform work and digital labour markets, which are rapidly reshaping employment relationships. While digital platforms offer new income opportunities, participants highlighted emerging challenges such as algorithmic management, unpredictable working time, blurred boundaries between work and personal life, and debates around new labour rights, including the “right to disconnect.” These trends, the discussion noted, complicate traditional approaches to measuring job quality and demand updated analytical frameworks.

Measuring versus assessing job quality

A dedicated methodological session clarified the distinction between measuring job quality using observed data and assessing employment impacts prospectively through modelling, counterfactual analysis, or ex ante project evaluation. IFIs shared practical experiences combining both approaches to inform project design, monitoring, and reporting.

Speakers from the ADB, IFC, EBRD, and IDB Invest illustrated how job-quality considerations are increasingly embedded across project life cycles—from appraisal and risk assessment to implementation and long-term impact evaluation—while balancing methodological rigour with operational constraints.

From principles to operational practice

Discussions also examined how fiscal and financial interventions, including tax incentives, wage subsidies, stimulus programmes, and micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) financing, have helped sustain employment and protect livelihoods during economic shocks. However, participants consistently emphasized that the number of jobs created captures only part of the development story.

Several institutions showcased concrete tools already in use, such as regional and continental labour-market dashboards tracking earnings, informality, NEET rates, social protection coverage, and gender disparities. These tools enable policymakers and development partners to monitor labour-market performance far beyond aggregate employment figures.

The way forward: harmonization and collaboration

Across all sessions, a clear message emerged: no single institution can address job-quality measurement challenges in isolation. Participants highlighted the need for closer alignment of methodologies, improved data-sharing practices, and sustained dialogue to ensure that emerging indicators are coherent, practical, and suitable for operational use.

The symposium also underscored the importance of capacity building within national statistical and labour institutions, particularly in countries where IFIs are jointly financing employment-intensive infrastructure and development programmes.

To sustain momentum, participants proposed convening a broader technical and operational meeting to strengthen linkages between assessment methodologies and on-the-ground implementation. Such collaboration, they agreed, would enhance synergies across institutions and amplify the collective impact of development finance on not just the quantity, but the quality, of employment worldwide.