Trends and challenges in employment and social affairs.

The latest report of the International Labour Organization (ILO) analyses the current situations in the labour markets, as well as the most important challenges and trends in the employment and social affairs sectors. It addressed issues such as unofficial working, the shortfall in creating decent jobs, gender-specific inequalities and high youth unemployment. The report also shows that in high-income countries, the increase in the labour force participation of older people has compensated the demographic aging.

Economic recovery has slowed down 

Although global employment growth remained stable in 2024, the labour market will continue to be challenged by geopolitical tensions, rising energy prices, the costs of climate change and unresolved debt problems.

The unemployment rate remained at previous year's level of five per cent. However, young people are especially affected here as their rate is 12.6 per cent. The ILO anticipates a slowdown in economic growth, despite moderate economic growth of 3.2 per cent realised during the period under review. This will also have a negative impact on recovery in labour market, and it will have particular consequences for countries with high population growth. Wage growth has not yet been able to fully make up for the income losses caused by the pandemic. Which, according to the ILO, can be attributed to the weak increase in employment growth.

Declining labour force participation hampered employment growth

Weakening employment growth is mainly due to labour force participation. It has declined globally, especially among young people. According to the ILO, 85.5 million young men (13.1 per cent) and 173.3 million young women (28.2 per cent) worldwide were not in education, employment or training in 2024. This development is somewhat different in high-income countries: Here, the overall employment rate rose by almost one per cent, which was due to older people increasingly participating in the labour force. The same applied to all countries – whether they have high or low incomes: Significant gender-specific differences still exist when it comes to participating in the labour force.

Conclusion and recommendations

The report referred to a global employment gap of 402 million people in 2024: 186 million people are unemployed, another 137 million are discouraged and 79 million are unable to work due to other commitments.

Expanding decent work opportunities remains a central pillar in pursuing the UN's sustainable development goals, especially in lower-income countries. Faster productivity growth is needed here to reduce the deficits.

The ILO report recommends investing in qualification measures and training, as well as expanding social protection. Opportunities for future employment growth are seen in the digital technologies and green energy sectors in particular. Many countries need to invest in the necessary infrastructures in order to take advantage of such opportunities.