The global jobs picture: fewer unemployed, more insecure

The ILO's annual outlook finds global unemployment near its lowest in decades, and in the same breath notes that most workers in low-income countries have no contract, no insurance and no pension. [1]

For Nepal the informal share is among the highest anywhere, which is why headline unemployment figures say so little about how people actually live.

The migration valve

Outward migration keeps domestic unemployment low and remittances high. It also means the most energetic cohort of workers builds its skills in someone else's economy.