A rough guide to measuring job quality in market systems development: Operational guidance

Decent work and job quality matter. Providing people with access to opportunities that are better paid, more secure and have improved working conditions can be a driver of poverty reduction and enhanced well-being. However, job quality can be complex for projects to understand and measure. It is also highly context-specific with few off-the-shelf approaches.

So, how can projects define quality jobs for target groups in their context? Which aspects of job quality should they decide to measure? What tools and methods can they use? This rough guide aims to help answer these questions. It complements the ILO Guide on Value Chain Development for Decent Work, and is intended for both experienced MSD practitioners interested in strengthening their focus on job quality, as well as broader private sector and enterprise development programmes with an interest in systemic approaches.