[Excerpt] 2001 Labour Overview appears at a difficult time in the world economic situation, aggravated by the events of last 11 September. As short-term indicators have shown, these have had marked repercussions on the economy and employment of most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The present labour situation shows a large and growing deficit in Decent Work, understood as productive jobs in good conditions, with freedom, equality, security and human dignity. In this respect, the present report is making a first effort to calculate the decent work development index, and raises some proposals for reducing the deficit. Moreover, future editions of this publication will increase the indicators in order to make in-depth observations on other aspects related to the idea of a decent work, as enunciated by the Director General of the ILO in 1999. Finally, analyses indicate that labour prospects are not very encouraging for the coming year. This forces governments, social protagonists and the ILO itself to make a special effort to advance in generating more employment with better labour conditions for everyone.