Innovative companies are more productive and create more jobs, which are often temporary and have a good share of female participation.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) stated that innovation is a major source of competitiveness and employment creation for companies. The organization claimed that innovative companies tend to be more productive, create more jobs, hire a larger share of qualified workers and women, and provide more training. In some cases, innovation has led to a more intensive use of temporary workers (especially in companies that innovate in products and processes), and it is interesting to point out temporary positions tend to be occupied by women.

Companies that apply innovation to their products and processes tend to employ 75% more temporary workers than non-innovative companies.

ILO mentioned that commerce and the involvement of these companies in global supply chains are also major stimulus for employment creation and productivity growth. However, the organization pointed out that commerce has become stagnated over the past few years and the same happens with employment linked to this sector. In 2016, 37.3% of workers were employed in exportation companies of the formal private sector. This proportion is smaller to the one prior the crisis (38.6%).

In its report “World Employment and Social Outlook 2017: sustainable enterprises and jobs”, the organization states that commercial companies have higher productivity rates and pay better salaries than companies not involved in commerce. However, productivity premium linked to exportation and importation beat wage premium between 13% and 5% respectively. This shows that it is possible to distribute earnings for commerce in a more inclusive way.