Editing Division of labour (section)

== Globalisation and global division of labour ==
The issue reaches its broadest scope in the controversies about [[globalization|globalisation]], which is often interpreted as a euphemism for the expansion of [[international trade]] based on [[comparative advantage]]. This would mean that countries specialise in the work they can do at the lowest relative cost measured in terms of the [[opportunity cost]] of not using resources for other work, compared to the opportunity costs experienced by countries. Critics, however, allege that international specialisation cannot be explained sufficiently in terms of "the work nations do best", rather that this specialisation is guided more by [[commerce|commercial]] criteria, which favour some countries over others.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|last=Cope|first=Zak|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/905638389|title=Divided world, divided class : global political economy and the stratification of labour under capitalism|year=2015|publisher=Kersplebedeb |isbn=978-1-894946-68-1|oclc=905638389}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite book|first=Samir|last=Amin|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1151842795|title=Unequal development : an essay on the social formations of peripheral capitalism |date=1976|publisher=Monthly Review Press|oclc=1151842795}}</ref>

The [[OECD]] advised in June 2005<ref>{{Cite book |last=Khurana |first=A. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/495418951 |title=Scientific management : a management idea to reach a mass audience |date=2009 |publisher=Global India Pub |isbn=978-93-80228-01-3 |location=New Delhi |pages=136 |oclc=495418951}}</ref> that:

{{blockquote|Efficient policies to encourage employment and combat unemployment are essential if countries are to reap the full benefits of globalisation and avoid a backlash against open trade... Job losses in some sectors, along with new job opportunities in other sectors, are an inevitable accompaniment of the process of globalisation... The challenge is to ensure that the adjustment process involved in matching available workers with new job openings works as smoothly as possible.}}

Few studies have taken place regarding the global division of labour. Information can be drawn from [[International Labour Organization|ILO]] and national statistical offices.<ref name=":3">{{cite web|date=25 January 2007|title=ILO releases Global Employment Trends 2007|url=http://www.ilo.org/public/english/region/asro/bangkok/public/releases/yr2007/pr07_02sa.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081006103439/http://www.ilo.org/public/english/region/asro/bangkok/public/releases/yr2007/pr07_02sa.htm|archive-date=6 October 2008|publisher=ILO News|location=BANGKOK}}</ref> In one study, Deon Filmer estimated that 2.474 billion people participated in the global non-domestic [[Workforce|labour force]] in the mid-1990s. Of these:<ref>{{Citation |title=Introduction: A World at Work |date=1995-06-30 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1596/9780195211023_chapter1 |work=World Development Report 1995 |pages=9–14 |publisher=The World Bank |doi=10.1596/9780195211023_chapter1 |isbn=978-0-19-521102-3 |access-date=2022-08-03}}</ref>

* around 15%, or 379 million people, worked in industry;
* a third, or 800 million worked in services and
* over 40%, or 1,074 million, in agriculture.

The majority of workers in industry and services were wage and salary earners—58 per cent of the industrial workforce and 65 per cent of the services workforce. But a large portion was self-employed or involved in family labour. Filmer suggests the total of employees worldwide in the 1990s was about 880 million, compared with around a billion working on their own account on the land (mainly peasants), and some 480 million working on their own account in industry and services. The 2007 [[International Labour Organization|ILO]] Global Employment Trends Report indicated that services have surpassed agriculture for the first time in human history:<ref name=":3" /><blockquote>In 2006 the service sector's share of global employment overtook agriculture for the first time, increasing from 39.5 to 40 per cent. Agriculture decreased from 39.7 per cent to 38.7 per cent. The industry sector accounted for 21.3 per cent of total employment.</blockquote>