Employment & Labor

The global push for poverty reduction and shared prosperity is inseparable from the availability, quality, and accessibility of jobs. Yet poverty is not only the result of bad jobs—it is also a barrier to finding better ones. The ability to search for formal employment is a privilege many cannot afford: job search itself requires income security. Without access to basic protection, millions of workers are unable to take risks, invest in a job search, or wait for opportunities that match their skills.

At the same time, rapid structural transformation is reshaping how and where jobs are created. Labor markets in developing regions are under pressure from demographic shifts.  Youth unemployment remains high – particularly in lower income contexts – with unemployment rates in Sub-Saharan Africa reaching 8.5% in 2024. In contrast, regions such as Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and East Asia are contending with shrinking and aging workforces.  International migration is also reshaping labor markets, influencing the supply of workers and the transfer of skills across borders.

Yet the greater challenge lies in the quality of available work: 71.7% of young adult workers in Sub-Saharan Africa remain in insecure forms of employment, a figure that has improved by only 0.6 percentage points over the past 20 years. Informality remains pervasive in many low- and middle-income countries, where securing higher wages, better working conditions, and social protection is a major challenge. Meanwhile, technological change and climate transitions are deepening mismatches between the skills of job seekers and the needs of employers.

Addressing these challenges requires not only creating more jobs but also improving their quality and strengthening the functioning of labor markets. This calls for a reframing of the jobs agenda: Jobs are not simply an outcome of growth, but an explicit development goal. Worker-centered policy solutions that ensure employment gains are widely shared, resilient, and inclusive are critical. Yet spending on labor market programs remains inadequate, averaging less than 0.3% of GDP globally, with sharp disparities—upper-middle-income countries invest nearly three times more than low-income nations.

The World Bank’s Social Protection and Labor Global Practice (SPL) helps countries build stronger labor markets through lending, data and evidence generation, capacity building, and cross-country knowledge sharing. Its mission is to support the design and implementation of labor market policies and programs that enhance skills, employability, productivity, and labor mobility—ensuring that all types of workers can access opportunities.

SPL delivers proven, scalable solutions for immediate impact and sustainable job creation, drawing on global experience and tailoring them to each country’s context.

Public works, wage subsidies, active labor market programs, labor regulations, unemployment insurance, and labor intermediation services are deployed to expand employment, protect workers, improve job matches, and boost labor market efficiency.

Economic inclusion programs, combining grants, entrepreneurship support, and market linkages, help poor and vulnerable workers move out of subsistence, improve job prospects, and transition into more productive and secure livelihoods.

Youth employment solutions integrate training, apprenticeships, and entrepreneurship to reduce barriers facing young people, recognizing the outsized impact of early career support and landing a first job.

Skills training and lifelong learning remain essential, with SPL promoting market-relevant training, on-the-job development, and apprenticeships, while preparing workers for roles in digital, green, and platform-based economies.

Global skill partnerships facilitate well-managed migration, enabling workers to acquire in-demand skills and meeting labor market needs in both home and destination countries.

Robust labor market delivery systems are foundational, moving beyond one-off interventions. SPL helps countries, such as Indonesia, to build institutionalized structures, strengthen national employment agencies, and design systems that deliver broad, lasting results.

Integrated social protection and labor systems are key—linking income security and employment services so workers can manage risks, invest in their futures, and pursue better jobs, especially in fragile and low-income settings. SPL provides analysis to help countries like Brazil benefit from changes in the world of work, new opportunities for human capital formation, and advances in technology and delivery systems.

Promising recent innovations include adapting policies for the informal sector, leveraging technology and data for effective targeting, and strengthening private sector engagement, with a growing focus on results-based approaches to amplify impact.

• Partnership for Economic Inclusion
• Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE)
• Supporting Effective Jobs Lending at Scale (SEJLS)
• Social Protection Response Umbrella Program