In Latin America, labor markets have been the main channel
through which growth has reduced poverty, with higher
labor income accounting for 49 percent of the reduction
in poverty in 2008–13. Understanding labor markets is
critical to designing policies and programs aimed at reducing
poverty. With close to 70 percent of the population
under age 30 years, labor markets are bound to be central
to defining Haiti’s future. Yet, labor analysis in Haiti has
been constrained by the dearth of data and the focus on
measuring the impact of the 2010 earthquake. This present
paper contributes to filling this gap by providing an
overview of Haiti’s labor markets and the determinants of
labor income over a decade, focusing on growing urban
areas. The paper also contributes to the research on Haiti
in general, as well as labor markets in fragile countries such
as Haiti, in particular through an unprecedented effort to
harmonize three household surveys conducted between
2001 and 2012. Building on this exercise, the study provides
new insights into the development of labor markets
in a particularly turbulent decade for Haiti, one that was
marked by the political crisis of 2004 and the earthquake
of 2010. In spite of the earthquake, the analysis shows that
Haiti’s labor markets are characterized by continuity over
the period. Somewhat surprisingly, the defining features
remain overall unchanged in spite of the shock, pointing
to heavy forces shaping economic and labor dynamics