Ani Silwal's blog

Updates to monthly remittances data

• Remittances to Guatemala declined 10.9% y-o-y in October. Year-to-date decline is 9.9%.
• Remittances to El Salvador declined 7.1% y-o-y in October. Year-to-date decline is 10%.
• Remittances to Jamaica declined 17.3% y-o-y in September. Year-to-date decline is 15.5%.
• Remittances to Nicaragua declined 8.4% y-o-y in September. Year-to-date decline is 6.3%.
• Remittances to Pakistan grew 62.7% y-o-y in October. Year-to-date growth is 26.7%.
• Remittances to Nepal grew 2% y-o-y in September. Year-to-date growth is 14.2%.
• Remittances to the Philippines grew 8.6% y-o-y in September. Year-to-date growth is 4.2%.

Remittances to Latin America and Caribbean are falling:

We had suggested earlier the bottoming out of remittances to Latin America in response to stabilizing construction activity in the US. The latest employment numbers for June 2009 from the Current Population Survey (CPS) hint at a turnaround in employment levels in the US, particularly for migrants. 
 

*3 month moving averages           Source: Current Population Survey

The sectoral breakdown of employment data show that employment in the construction sector is picking up faster than other major occupations. Employment in other major occupations also seems to be stabilizing. 

A constant struggle facing researchers and policymakers tackling migration issues is a lack of good data. The Center for Global Development recently released “Five Steps Toward Better Migration Data,” an excellent report on concrete steps governments and non-governmental organizations can take in the short run to fill this gap. 

This report is particularly important in the context of a new round of census taking in 2010. The five recommendations are to: 

1. Ask basic census questions and make the data publicly available; 
2. Compile and release existing administrative data;
3. Centralize labor force surveys; 
4. Provide access to microdata, not just tabulations; and 
5. Include migration modules on more existing household surveys.

Given the abundance of recommendations in the development industry, a laudable effort is the accompanying report card (PDF) which tracks countries’ progress with respect to the recommendations.