LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT UNDER THE NIC MODEL OF DEVELOPMENT - RECENT-EVIDENCE FROM MAURITIUS

The export-based development strategies of the Newly Industrialising C ountries (NECs) of East Asia, associated with high labour absorption i n manufacturing, low unemployment rates, and rising skill levels, are often suggested as a model for other developing countries. The paper e xamines labour and employment trends from 1963 to 1988 in Mauritius, a country that explicitly adopted the NIC model in the early seventies. The trends show a number of similarities to NIC labour and employment patterns. The gains made since 1970, ironically, present constraints to sustaining economic development based on labour intensive productio n. Mauritius faces unique opportunities and challenges as it begins to make the shift to capital intensive manufacturing and service activit ies, the final step to NIC status.