This report addresses the challenges of achieving environmental sustainability and turning the vision of decent work for all into a reality. While it is certain that environmental degradation and climate change will increasingly require enterprises and labour markets to react and adjust, the goal of environmentally sustainable economies will not be attained without the active contribution of the world of work. The environment and social development must no longer be treated as separate pillars of sustainable development, but as closely interrelated dimensions. Such an integrated approach turns the drive towards environmental sustainability into a significant avenue for development, with more and better jobs, social inclusion and poverty reduction. Positive outcomes are possible; these, however, require county-specific policies that seize the opportunities and address the challenges identified by integrating environmental, social and decent work elements and ensuring a smooth and just transition to sustainable economies. The opportunities for gains may in fact be greatest in developing countries and emerging economies. It is now evident that a decisive turn away from the business as usual policy scenario of “grow first and clean up later” is urgently needed. Most international policy institutions, among them the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Bank and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have made urgent calls for a change of direction. The need for an integrated approach has been articulated further by the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development 2012 (Rio +20), which also highlighted decent work as a central goal and driver for sustainable development and a more environmentally sustainable economy.

The global economic outlook has deteriorated significantly since 2010. The latest indicators suggest that employment growth has already begun to slow. This is the case in nearly two-thirds of advanced economies and half of the emerging and developing economies for which recent information exists. The Report shows that almost 80 million jobs need to be created over the next two years to reach pre-crisis employment rates. But the recent slowdown in economic activity suggests that the world economy is likely to only create half the number of jobs needed. As a result, on current trends, employment in advanced economies will not return to the pre-crisis situation before 2016, which is one year later than predicted in World of Work Report 2010

Global Employment Trends 2013 highlights how the crisis is increasingly raising trend unemployment rates, partly driven by sectoral shifts of jobs that had been triggered by the crisis. Despite historically low interest rates in many advanced economies, investment and employment have not shown tangible signs of recovery. Depressed growth prospects have started to spread to the developing world, where low productivity and wage growth continues to remain an issue in most regions, preventing improvements in employment and disposable incomes, in particular among poorer countries, and adding to a rise in global inequality. The report argues that in countries with high and rising unemployment, job guarantee programmes for targeted labour market groups should be the preferred policy measure. Moreover, rising labour market discouragement and structural unemployment should be tackled with new skills and training initiatives to help jobseekers find employment in alternative industries and to promote their employability more broadly. Other possible areas of intervention are further investments in public infrastructure in developing countries and a swift implementation of financial market regulation to help stabilize the macroeconomic environment and stimulate job creation.

The ILO has worked closely together with UNEP in developing and writing the Report, rooted in the earlier partnership that produced the seminal Green Jobs Report in 2008. The purpose of the ILO’s collaboration in the Green Economy Report is to strengthen the analysis of the implications on the labour market –enterprises, workers and the self-employed– of setting and achieving environmental goals. The structural transformation brings along changes in employment patterns and skills requirements, along with new business opportunities and the need for responsible management practices. It may also cause the contraction of sectors and enterprises which are incompatible with long term sustainable development. The management of this change needs to be fair and must ensure sufficient protection and access to alternative for those negatively affected. The ILO’s aim to provide decent work translates in the adoption of a “just transition’’ framework for the construction of a fairer, greener and more sustainable globalization.

The global jobs crisis has hit young people hard. Of the world’s estimated 211 million unemployed people in 2009, nearly 40 per cent – or about 81 million – were between 15 and 24 years of age. In many countries, this grim unemployment picture is darkened further by the large number of youth engaged in poor quality and low paid jobs with intermittent and insecure work arrangements, including in the informal economy. Many youth are poor or underemployed: some 152 million young people, or 28 per cent of all young workers in the world, work but live in households that earn less than the equivalent of US$1.25 per day. Youth unemployment and under-employment result in missed opportunities in terms of economic growth and development. The Global Jobs Pact, adopted by the International Labour Conference in 2009, highlights the labour market vulnerabilities of young people and calls for action to support youth at risk. During the jobs crisis, many governments have taken measures to sustain youth employment through a combination of incentives for new employment, employment services, skills development, income support, public works and community services, and youth entrepreneurship. This brief highlights a number of lessons learned from the implementation of initiatives during past crises. The latter could be taken into consideration by governments, in concert with the social partners, to design interventions aimed at promoting decent work for young people during economic recovery.

Many countries are experiencing a persistent gap between the skills needed in the labour market and those offered by the workforce. Skills anticipation is a strategic and systematic process through which labour market actors identify and prepare to meet future skills needs, thus helping to avoid potential gaps between skills demand and supply. Skills anticipation enables training providers, young people, policymakers, employers and workers to make better educational and training choices, and through institutional mechanisms and information resources leads to improved use of skills and human capital development. This guidance note explains the key components of skills anticipation systems, including data, methodologies, tools and institutions.

Several developed economies are seeing increasing numbers of job vacancies, but their unemployment rates are not going down. In some cases, they are even rising. What is happening is that many of the workers who lost their jobs to the crisis do not have the skills that the labour market now demands.

The establishment of the Global Commission on the Future of Work in August 2017 marked the start of the second phase of ILO’s Future of Work Centenary initiative. The six thematic clusters provide a basis for further deliberations of the Global Commission. They focus on the main issues that need to be considered if the future of work is to be one that provides security, equality and prosperity. A series of Issue Briefs are prepared under each of the proposed clusters. These are intended to stimulate discussion on a select number of issues under the different themes. The thematic clusters are not necessarily related to the structure of the final report.

Increased digitalization and automation are expected to significantly affect both the quality and quantity of jobs. New types of jobs and employment are changing the nature and conditions of work by altering skills requirements and replacing traditional patterns of work and sources of income. They open opportunities, especially for developing countries, to enter new, fast-growing sectors and catch up with more advanced economies. At the same time, new technologies are affecting the functioning of labour markets and challenging the effectiveness of existing labour market institutions, with far-reaching consequences for the number of jobs, their quality and the diversity of opportunities they offer. This Issue Brief discusses the potential of technological change for job creation and destruction and its implications for inequality and job polarization. It also highlights the opportunities for economic development and labour market efficiency and inclusion.