Decent Work and Economic Growth Lab

The global unemployment rate stands at 5.7%. Women are less likely to be employed than men across all age groups.

Of the 76% of countries with accessible data, more than 1 out of 10 youth are neither in school nor working.

More than half of child labourers (85 million children) work in unsafe or hazardous conditions. Most child labourers work in the agricultural sector.

Labour productivity has slowed since 2000 to about 1.9% (down from 2.9%.) This represents a negative development for the global economy.

In developing countries, the middle class makes up more than 34% of the population. Men earn 12.5% more than women in 40 out of 45 countries with data.

Automation is shifting labour demand from unskilled jobs to high skilled work.

Globally, 61% of all workers were engaged in informal employment in 2016. Excluding the agricultural sector, 51% of all workers fell into this employment category.

The global gender pay gap stands at 23% globally. Without decisive action, it will take another 68 years to achieve equal pay. Women’s labour force participation rate is 63% while that of men is 94%.

Poor access to education increases the supply of low-skilled workers, while global market forces saddle them with a lack of work.

Despite their increasing presence in public life, women continue to do 2.6 times the unpaid care and domestic work that men do.

We will need to create 470 million new jobs to cover new entrants to the labour market between 2016 and 2030.

The global unemployment rate in 2017 was 5.6% , down from 6.4% in 2000.