Expanding upon a report presented to the International Labor Organization (ILO), this book documents the current world employment situation, including how it has fallen short, how current economic policies interact with world employment, and how improvements can be made. Chapter one, "The Commitment to Full Employment," describes how the ILO measures and defines employment and unemployment and discusses the concept of creating a universal employment strategy in developing, industrialized and transition countries. Chapter two, "The Current Employment Picture" looks at broad trends in employment globally and regionally and the characteristics of employment quality, including freedom of association and equal opportunity. Chapter three, "The Employment Effects of Current Policies," discusses the recent experiences of developing countries in East and Southeast Asia and Latin America, as well as the older Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) members. Chapter four presents conclusions, including discussions of poverty, income distribution and economic growth, full employment policies, and how the ILO helps promote full employment in a global context and at the national level. Extensive bibliographic notes follow each chapter. The document contains data tables and an index. (SLR)