Work and Poverty During Economic Restructuring:

Summaries Colombia escaped the worst of the debt crisis and has voluntarily adopted the kind of economic restructuring advocated by the World Bank and the IMF. Its experience represents a partial test of the effects of neo?liberal economic policy on the urban poor. Employment trends in Bogotá suggest that many of the fears about economic restructuring are unjustified. Despite liberalisation and a doubling in the numbers seeking work, unemployment rates have fallen. Jobs have been created, although principally in the informal sector. Feminisation has been operating very strongly in Bogotá and the sexual division of labour has begun to change. Since 1970 poverty in Bogotá has become both less common and less serious. If households are less poor, however, it is principally because more adults are working. Real personal incomes during the 1990s declined. If less people are hungry, every adult is also a great deal busier.