G²LM|LIC – Jobs of the World Database

The Jobs of the World Database (JWD) is a publicly available database constructed by harmonizing the available micro-datasets which contain information on jobs and labor market activities in low- and middle-income countries to create a multi-country macro-dataset. The current version of the data harmonizes census data (IPUMS) and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). This provides coverage of countries representing about 81 percent of the world’s population, and more than 90 percent of the population in low- and middle-income countries. The database focuses on a wide range of labor market characteristics including, but not limited to: labor force participation, type of employment (e.g., waged or self-employment), sector of employment, skill level, etc. The data also contains information about internal and external migration patterns. All these aspects can be shown as aggregate at the level of country year, but also split along different characteristics including gender, education level, age groups, urban vs rural regions, etc. A major advantage of the database is the use of detailed data about household assets and dwelling characteristics to estimate a wealth density at the household level. This density was used to create wealth quintiles which can be used to investigate the labor market characteristic for different socio-economic groups (very poor, poor, average, rich, and very rich).