The Asian Development Bank is urging governments in the Asia-Pacific region to promote full and decent employment as a means of fighting poverty.
A new report released by the Manila-based institution says out of a labor force of nearly two billion people, at least 500 million in the region are are unemployed or underemployed.
The ADB says job creation in the Asia-Pacific region is limited by a number of factors, including weaknesses in basic infrastructure and financial systems, and regulatory barriers that conspire to restrain investment and job growth.
The report calls on governments to remove those barriers, and work with the private sector to identify and develop nontraditional, but labor intensive activities.