This edition of the Social Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean addresses the challenges of labour inclusion as a key axis for inclusive social development. Despite a recovery in social indicators in 2022 (reduction of poverty and inequality recovery of employment) the region faces a double trap of low growth and high levels of poverty and inequality. Labour inclusion is key to combating poverty reducing informality and inequality and moving towards inclusive social development. Gender gaps in labour market inclusion are driven by the unequal distribution of the burden of care work which is largely borne by women. In the case of migrants overqualification and discrimination also affect their labour market inclusion. The efforts made by countries in terms of investment in labour policies which on average amount to 0.34% of GDP are insufficient. What is needed is a shift from labour market integration to labour market inclusion guaranteeing access to quality employment income above the minimum wage and access to social protection particularly for women and young people.

The 2021 edition of the Social Panorama of Latin America examines the social impact of the crisis prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic and provides the most recent statistics on poverty inequality and social spending in the region. The study also analyzes the prolonged health crisis’s profound effects on health care and social protection systems along with the labor impacts caused by the pandemic and it includes a chapter on the importance of moving towards a care society as the beacon for a sustainable recovery with gender equality.

The Social Panorama of Latin America 2019 analyzes issues crucial to understanding and action given the structural challenges facing the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean in the current economic and social situation especially in the context of the transformations underway in labour markets. Throughout the report which has been published since 1991 strategies and policies are suggested for advancing toward inclusive development in accordance with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In this edition of Social Panorama of Latin America ECLAC has addressed the questions posed by the countries of the region in three major areas: income inequality between individuals and households and how these relate to labour market dynamics; the evolution of poverty and its determinants; and the effects of pension systems on equality. The poverty analysis in this 2017 edition is based on a major update of the methodology used; this offers improved comparability between countries which is an essential input for conducting an overall analysis of how poverty and its determinants have evolved. This effort has led to the creation of a new regional data series. The new statistical series using the national data will be made public by ECLAC in the first half of 2018 once the consultations with the respective countries have been concluded. In this edition as well as continuing the analysis of the dimensions of social inequality given in previous years Commission presents a new study of the demographic context and labour market inequalities and how these relate to the coverage and quality of pension benefits.

The 2015 edition of Social Panorama of Latin America analyses poverty trends as measured by ECLAC. It also examines changes in income distribution and in other aspects of inequality. With a view to contributing to the development of public policies to overcome poverty and socioeconomic inequality this edition examines the latest trends in social spending and the challenges posed by demographic change and provides in-depth analysis of persistent gaps in the labour market of the challenges facing policies and programmes that foster inclusion in the labour market and production and of social development institutions in Latin America.

In 2010 the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) proposed a comprehensive development strategy entitled Time for equality: closing gaps opening trails. This edition of Social Panorama takes a more in-depth look at the chain that produces and reproduces social gaps; it addresses other spheres as well. It focuses on how structural heterogeneity (productivity gaps in the national economies) labour segmentation and gaps in social protection are linked along the chain. Demographic factors such as fertility differentiated by education and income level are discussed as are more specific patterns of risk and exclusion like those impacting young people in the Caribbean.

This 17th version of the report - one of ECLAC’s most important flagship publications - provides estimates for 2009 on poverty and indigence in the region and analyses social spending and government social protection policies. The Social Panorama 2009 includes the following among other issues: An analysis of social protection policies including conditional transfer programmes and their re-distributive impact; a review of government social agendas before and during the crisis: actions challenges and options; a diagnosis of who are most vulnerable to poverty in the region and how to protect them and suggestions for a new social protection system in Latin America.

Latin America has extremely high levels of social and economic inequality as well as insufficient social expenditure despite registering the highest growth in per capita GDP since the 70’s. This work provides the latest estimates for the countries of Latin America regarding poverty residential segregation impact of social expenditure on people’s well-being and psycho-social divides. It also analyses internal migrations as well as health programmes for indigenous people and women.

The 2005 edition of the Social Panorama of Latin America analyses recent poverty trends and the increase in migrant remittances together with their impact on the well-being of the region's population. The analysis seeks to explore the question as to whether the demographic transition taking place in the Latin American countries over the past 15 years has helped to narrow the long-standing gaps between different socio-economic groups' and areas' mortality and birth rates. Attention is also drawn to the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Caribbean countries and to the reversal of its skewed gender distribution which has had a devastating impact on households and the community at large. Finally this edition looks at major changes in the health sector.