Second, certain segments of the population may not be, for various reasons, in a position to take part in the labour force and thus benefit from employment expansion and wage income. Third, even the employed may experience the need for extra protection when wages are too low, which creates the problem of the “working poor”. While most of these programmes were originally launched and used as ex post measures to help affected people cope with economic downturns, in more recent years, they have been increasingly used ex ante as measures to reduce the exposure of the poor to insecurity. Such programmes would offer jobs to displaced workers, though at wages below the market average (typically about half of the mean wage rates).