Summary

The Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights explains how the introduction of a job guarantee, with the State acting as an employer of last resort, can contribute to the full realization of the right to work, transforming it from a policy objective into an enforceable legal right. The job guarantee tackles the paradox of structural unemployment and underemployment coexisting with important unsatisfied societal needs, as neither the State nor the market currently supplies the public goods that are needed for the greening of the economy and for a thriving care economy. The Special Rapporteur highlights the benefits of the introduction of the job guarantee both to the individual and to the community, and addresses a number of objections to the idea. He sees the introduction of a job guarantee as an essential component of the “just transition” and of the new eco-social contract needed for the post-crisis recovery.