Trend Scanner | Reports

The gender gap in labour force participation remains large

The much lower labour force participation rate of women, which stood at 48 per cent in 2018, com-pared with 75 per cent for men, means that around three in five of the 3.5 billion people in the global labour force in 2018 were men. After a period of rapid improvement that lasted until 2003, subsequent progress on closing the gender gap in participation rates has stalled. The sizeable gap of 27 percentage points registered in 2018 should motivate policy action aimed at both improving gender equality in global labour markets and maximizing human capabilities. Overall, labour force participation rates among adults have been declining for the past 25 years; the decline is even more pronounced among young people aged 15–24. This downward trend is projected to continue in the future. Some of the factors behind it – such as increased educational enrolment, greater retirement opportunities and higher life expectancy – are of course positive. Yet, the rise in the dependency ratio (i.e. the proportion of economically inactive people relative to the active) poses new challenges in terms of the organization of work and the distribution of resources in society.

2019

World Employment and Social Outlook

International Labour Organization (ILO)

view report

Decent work deficits are widespread

A majority of the 3.3 billion people employed globally in 2018 experienced a lack of material well-being, economic security, equal opportunities or scope for human development. Being in employment does not always guarantee a decent living. Many workers find themselves having to take up unattractive jobs that tend to be informal and are characterized by low pay and little or no access to social protection and rights at work. Significantly, 360 million people in 2018 were contributing family workers and 1.1 billion worked on their own account, often in subsistence activities that are pursued because of an absence of job opportunities in the formal sector and/or the lack of a social protection system. Overall, 2 billion workers were in informal employment in 2016, accounting for 61 per cent of the world’s workforce. The poor quality of many jobs also manifests itself in the fact that, in 2018, more than one quarter of workers in low- and middle-income countries were living in extreme or moderate poverty. On a positive note, the incidence of working poverty has decreased greatly over the past three decades, especially in middle-income countries. In low-income countries, however, the pace of poverty reduction is not expected to keep up with employment growth, so that the actual number of working poor in these countries is projected to rise.

2019

World Employment and Social Outlook

International Labour Organization (ILO)

view report

More than 170 million people are unemployed despitethe continued decrease in the global unemployment rate

An estimated 172 million people worldwide were unemployed in 2018, which corresponds to an un-employment rate of 5.0 per cent. It is remarkable that, whereas it took only one year for the global un-employment rate to jump from 5.0 per cent in 2008 to 5.6 per cent in 2009, the recovery to the levels that prevailed before the global financial crisis has taken a full nine years. The current outlook is un-certain. Assuming stable economic conditions, the unemployment rate in many countries is projected to decline further. However, macroeconomic risks have increased and are already having a negative impact on the labour market in a number of countries. On balance, the global unemployment rate should remain at roughly the same level during 2019 and 2020. The number of people unemployed is projected to increase by 1 million per year to reach 174 million by 2020 as a result of the expanding labour force.

2019

World Employment and Social Outlook

International Labour Organization (ILO)

view report

Labour underutilization is more prevalent among women

Apart from the unemployed, a further 140 million people were in the “potential labour force” in 2018, which means that they have to be classified as underutilized labour. This group of people who are looking for a job but are not available to take up employment, or who are available but are not looking for a job, includes far more women (85 million) than men (55 million). The corresponding rate of labour underutilization is consequently much higher for women, at 11.0 per cent, than for men, at 7.1 per cent. In addition, women are much more likely to work part time and a significant proportion say they would prefer more hours of employment.

2019

World Employment and Social Outlook

International Labour Organization (ILO)

view report

Artificial intelligence and machine learning

Progress in AI has accelerated rapidly since around 2010, driven by the confluence of the growing availability of large data sets from commerce, social media, science and other sources; continued improvements in computational power; and the development of better machine learning algorithms and techniques (such as “deep learning”). Systems are now capable of learning how to accomplish a task without having been provided with explicit steps for doing so. Once designed and deployed, the neural network that underpins modern AI can formulate its own rules for interpreting new data and designing solutions, with minimal— or no— human participation.

2018