# **5. Conclusion**

The objective of this paper is to analyze the patterns of UB and ALMP indicators across different income groups and regions and investigate the interlinkages between labor market outcomes and UB and ALMP, drawing on novel UB and ALMP data collected from 191 economies in 2019–2020. The paper also aims to assess the trends of global labor market reforms implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic utilizing the World Bank’s comprehensive inventory of these reforms.

This investigation reveals new insights on the patterns of UB and ALMP and their linkages with labor market outcomes in low-income, upper-middle-income and high-income economies, especially given the gap in the literature in developing countries. Also, different from past studies, the econometric analysis in this paper incorporates a wide range of UB and ALMP indicators, as well as many categories of labor market outcomes, and controls for the interlinkages between per capita income and UB and ALMP indicators. Finally, unlike most studies that use micro level data, this analysis employs aggregate-level indicators to assess the overall association between UB and ALMP and labor market outcomes.<sup>22</sup> The key findings of the descriptive statistical analyses can be summarized as follows:

- Among the 191 countries, 47.6 percent have UB schemes and 85.3 percent have ALMP.

- Across ALMP, public employment services (PES) are most prevalent (employed in 81.7 percent of countries), followed by national skills funds (52.9 percent) and government incentives offered for training (53.9 percent).

- The use of ALMP vis-à-vis UB increases substantially, as income level decreases,

- On average, employees need to contribute at least 11.6 months to become eligible for UB, and the average maximum UB period is 37.3 weeks.

- Among the six eligibility conditions for UB covered by the data, all of which are also ALMP, periodic reporting on active job search, participation in a training program, and registration with PES are most commonly used. Regarding the six services offered by PES, training programs, access to the vacancy database and job placement are most frequently used, followed by counseling and internship/apprenticeship programs. Support for geographic mobility is the least frequently used.

- The eligibility conditions most likely to be used together are periodic reporting on active job search and participating in training offered by PES, followed by periodic reporting and registration with PES. As for the services offered by PES, job placement and access to the vacancy database are most likely to be offered together, followed by job placement and counseling services.

- According to the World Bank's Social Protection and Jobs Policy Inventory that gathered data from March 2020 to January 2022, 223 economies implemented 3856 policies to safeguard workers, vulnerable groups, and economic activities from the Covid-19 crisis. Among these reforms, 159 were related to UB, 865 were related to ALMP and the rest was on social assistance and other labor market policies.

- High-income economies led 62 percent of UB reforms, with upper middle-income and lower middle-income countries contributing 26 and 11 percent, respectively.

> 22 Models using micro data or data from certain local geographic areas are not able to capture the secondary effects of UB and ALMP on other sectors and geographic locations, and yield results that are limited to that sector or location.

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