Trends on Employment and Productivity of OIC Member Countries: An Analysis

The objective of the paper is to examine the changes in employment, productivity and economic growth as a whole, and for respective sectors, of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) member countries. The study determines if there were structural changes in employment for the period between 1993 and 2005. Further analysis groups OIC member countries according to region and examine the trends within these groups. Comparisons are made with the world economy and with non-OIC countries in the respective groups. The paper then analyzes the degree of employment elasticity required by selected countries in relation to their rates of economic growth, unemployment, labor force participation and poverty. The results show that OIC countries average annual GDP growth rate of 5.38% was much higher than the average world rate of 4.55%. However, only 36% ofthe economic growth in the OIC member countries could be attributed to gains in productivity, compared to the global rate of 53%. There were disparities in the economic performance of OIC countries relative to others within a particular region. Globally, the services sector was the fastest growing sector, but it is the industrial sector that recorded the highest employment growth of 2.03%. However, for OIC member countries as a group both output and employment growths were the highest in the services sector. Based on the findings of the study, several recommendations and suggestions are put forth for respective OIC countries.