Things should be looking good for young people in the world of work, but they’re not. While unemployment among young workers between 15 and 24 has recovered from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, there’s a growing epidemic of unhappiness among those workers in both the developed and now the developing world. So, what is to be done? This podcast asks David Blanchflower, a professor at Dartmouth College, renowned labour economist and recognized expert on youth employment, what can be done.

In the past half decade, the world of work has faced unprecedented challenges in the form of a global pandemic, social, political and economic crises, the explosive growth of Artificial Intelligence, and an increase in destructive climate events, among others.

Meeting these challenges will require policies that support SDG 8 on decent jobs and economic growth and help advance the broader objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

So how do we address these policy and macroeconomic challenges while ensuring that employment policies help bridge jobs and economic growth, address broader economic realities and protect labour rights? In this podcast, ILO Employment Policy Director Sangheon Lee and Gilad Isaacs, Executive Director at the Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) in South Africa offer their views.

Campaña para promover la formalización y el reconocimiento social de las trabajadoras del hogar en el Perú

Campaña para promover la formalización y el reconocimiento social de las trabajadoras del hogar en el Perú

Campaña para promover la formalización y el reconocimiento social de las trabajadoras del hogar en el Perú

Can Nature-based Solutions help us address environmental challenges, while laying the groundwork for creating millions of new jobs? A report by the ILO, the UN Environment Programme and the International Union for Conservation of Nature titled “Decent Work in Nature-based Solutions (NbS) says NbS has the potential to add up to 32 million jobs by 2030 to the already more than 60 million working to protect, and restore and sustainably use natural resources with the greatest gains in Africa, Latin America and the Arab States. At the same time, NbS will also require new skills training and reskilling of some workers. In this podcast, two lead editors of the report, Maikel Lieuw-Kie-Song, Senior Technical Specialist of the ILO Employment Policy Department, and Rowan Palmer, Programme Officer in the United Nations Environment Programme’s Economic and Trade Policy Unit explain.

Good employment policies underpin efforts to create more and better jobs, and help reduce inequalities and poverty, and empower people, especially women, young people and the most vulnerable such as people with disabilities. What is more, these polices also help address decent work deficits and are critically important to the realization of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, specifically SDG 8, on promoting sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all. In this podcast, Juan Chacaltana, ILO Senior Employment Policies Specialist in the Employment Policy Department, and Alina Game, Technical Officer and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) expert, explain how Employment Impact Assessments involving a variety of tools for evidence-based policy development can help achieve these goals.

Amid rising labour shortages and employers around the world struggling to find skilled workers, labour migration, if managed properly, can help widen the pool of available skills. But the complex issue of increasing migration and the skills challenges faced by migrant workers and employers is huge. So how can we help migrant workers acquire the skills they need to find decent jobs, and employers find the skilled migrant workers they need for their enterprises? And what is the ILO doing to address this question, both in destination countries and countries of origin? In this episode, the ILO’s Christine Hofmann, Regional Skills Specialist for Africa, addresses these issues and the policy response.

Productivity growth is seen as central to economic development and social progress and drives up wages, living standards for workers and the competitiveness of businesses. So, how are different regions and countries increasing productivity, and can it be done in an inclusive way? In this podcast Professor Gaaitzen De Vries in the Department of Global Economics and Management of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and Luca Fedi, Employment specialist of the ILO Productivity Ecosystems for Decent Work project, explore this issue and why it matters.

The number of ageing workers in the workforce is growing. People are working longer, either because they want to, they need to to make ends meet or have because they have unique skills. So, what are the implications of this trend for the trade union movement? What does it mean for older workers and their representatives? And how can trade unions address the multiple challenges that are emerging as the workforce ages? In this podcast we explore these trends with Plamen Dimitrov, President of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria and member of the Workers’ Group of the ILO Governing Body.