The Inter-American Development Bank and LinkedIn are partnering to measure key labor indicators as a means to guide 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 labor market due to the pandemic? examines hiring rates and skill penetration – the specific skills needed to carry out tasks in each job – in critical economics sectors. These indicators are both fundamental measures of the state and quality of labor markets.

According to the study, there was a 70% 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 Labor 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," explained Laura Ripani, head of the Labor Markets Division at the Inter-American Development Bank. As a priority in its Vision 2025, the Bank seeks to harness the opportunities of the expanding digital economy to drive recovery in the region.

Overall, Brazil leads other countries in the region in the indicators analyzed with data from the world’s largest labor platform. It had the strongest hiring rate since the pandemic began, even during the most critical phase of the health crisis. It also held the highest penetration of technological skills.

The Inter-American Development Bank and LinkedIn are collaborating as part of the Development Data Partnership initiative. This alliance between international organizations and companies facilitates access to and responsible use of third-party data for international research and development.

The data analyzed under this alliance represents a subset of the labor 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 analyze green jobs: employment created or transformed as the region’s economies transition towards sustainability.

Download the report in Spanish or English.