WASHINGTON, United States (CMC) — The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) says it is collaborating with the US-based business and employment-oriented online service, LinkedIn to measure key labour indicators as a means to guide coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic recovery efforts in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The first analysis released indicates growth in the digital economy and the field of technology, as well as heightened demand for technological skills in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“LinkedIn in Latin America and the Caribbean: An accelerated transformation of the labour market due to the pandemic,” examines hiring rates and skill penetration, specific skills needed to develop tasks in each job, in critical economics sectors.

The IDB said that these indicators are both fundamental measures of the state and quality of labour markets.

According to the study, there was a 70 per cent drop in hiring in Latin America and the Caribbean at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The field of information technology has seen the strongest jobs growth since the pandemic began. At the opposite extreme was education, where the hiring rate had not yet rebounded to its February 2020 level.

“The trends of decline and recovery during the crisis match those we saw in our Labour Observatory, but they broaden our perspective on trends in the field of information technology. This information is very valuable for designing quality job recovery policies as described in the IDB Better Jobs Index,” said Laura Ripani, head of the IDB’s Labour Markets Division.

As a priority in its Vision 2025, the IDB said it seeks to harness the opportunities of the expanding digital economy to drive recovery in the region.

The IDB and LinkedIn are collaborating as part of the Development Data Partnership initiative, which is an alliance between international organisations and companies that facilitates access to and responsible use of third-party data for international research and development.

The data analysed under this alliance represents a subset of the labour force: higher earners, workers in knowledge-intensive sectors, and formal employees.

The next joint report will study the penetration of green skills, which are job skills related to promoting sustainability. It will also analyse green jobs; employment created or transformed as the region’s economies transition towards sustainability.