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As rapid economic development has pushed the
percentage of people working in most East Asian countries to among the
highest in the world, policy makers should enact labor regulations and
social protection policies to benefit all workers, including those in the
large informal economy, according to a new World Bank report, East Asia
Pacific at Work: Employment, Enterprise and Well-Being.

In the last 20 years, East Asia Pacific saw rising productivity amid a
brisk structural transformation, with large movements of people into
cities and higher output in agriculture, manufacturing and services.
Countries that were poor a generation ago successfully integrated into
the global value chain, taking advantage of low labor costs. In most
countries in the region, the share of the population working or seeking
work, including women, is higher than other countries with similar income
levels.

•˛The unprecedented economic development in East Asia Pacific has
provided jobs and lifted millions of people out of poverty and has been a
triumph of working people, said Axel van Trotsenburg, World Bank East
Asia and Pacific Regional Vice President. "It˙s time to consolidate
growth by adopting social policies that protect people, rather than any
particular sector, location or profession. When well-designed, those
policies should make sure social protection and labor regulations benefit
the most vulnerable workers in society."