The 2025 session of the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in July will conduct in-depth reviews of progress towards five SDGs. SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth) is one of these Goals. This brief reviews the status of SDG 8 and its interlinkages with other Goals.
When UN Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 SDGs in 2015, they committed to promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all. Ten years into implementation and five years remaining until the 2030 deadline, SDG 8 remains one of the most off-track Goals. Despite some gains, such as reduced unemployment and increased access to financial services, progress in critical areas such as youth employment, informality, labor rights, and child labor, has stagnated or even reversed.
According to an SDG 8 background note, prepared by the UN Secretariat ahead of HLPF 2025, delivering on SDG 8 “is not only central to the economy but also foundational to the 2030 Agenda.” Achieving decent work – a fundamental precondition for poverty reduction, gender equality, education, and climate resilience – requires addressing the quantity as well as quality of employment, paying attention to rights, social protection, productivity, and inclusion.
So where do we stand on SDG 8 since its last HLPF review in 2021?
According to the UN Secretary-General’s SDG progress report, global real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita (SDG target 8.1) has rebounded since the 3.8% drop caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Having peaked at 5.5% in 2021, growth slowed to 1.9% in 2023. For 2024 and 2025, growth is estimated at 2% and 1.5%, respectively. In the least developed countries (LDCs), which “experienced more volatility,” according to the report, the real GDP growth fell to 0.5% in 2020, recovered to 4.7% in 2022, and slowed again to 3.5% in 2023, with 3.1% growth projected for 2024.
Labor productivity (SDG target 8.2) is measured as GDP per worker. According to the report, the pandemic “severely impacted productivity in 2020, when output fell faster than employment rates,” and growth has struggled to return to pre-pandemic levels. A rebound in 2021 was followed by a period of near stagnation in 2022-2023, and a modest 1.5% growth is estimated for 2024.
SDG target 8.3 calls for “development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation” while encouraging the formalization and growth of micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), including through access to financial services. Data indicate that in 2024, 57.8% of the global workforce was in informal employment, lacking social protection. This is 34 million more workers than in 2023 – a 0.2 percentage point increase.
At the same time, the global unemployment rate hit a record low of 5% in 2024, down from 6% in 2015 (SDG target 8.5), although women and youth continue to face higher unemployment rates despite improvements since 2015. According to the UN, young people are three times more likely to be unemployed than adults (SDG target 8.6), with one in five young people (ages 15-24) globally not in employment, education, or training. Compared to young men, young women are more than twice as likely to be unemployed.
Data further indicate there has been a 7% deterioration in the global average compliance with labor rights (SDG target 8.8) between 2015 and 2023, with the steepest erosion of over 45% reported in the LDCs. Developed economies, according to the report, also experienced a 16.5% decline. Violations extend to freedom of association, collective bargaining, and protection against discrimination and forced labor. In 2024, nearly 138 million children were engaged in child labor.
According to the UN, while the digital transformation and green and care economies offer new opportunities, especially for women and youth, they can also increase vulnerabilities in the absence of supportive policies.
A major obstacle to achieving SDG 8 is finance. According to an SDG 8 background note, in 2024, developing countries paid over USD 400 billion in debt servicing, contributing to an estimated USD 982 billion fiscal gap for economic and labor market recovery. The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) sought to address some of the challenges presented by the current state of global economic governance and financing systems, and its outcomes will feed into SDG 8 in-depth review at HLPF 2025.
SDG 8 is deeply interconnected with other Goals, especially SDG 1 (no poverty), SDG 3 (good health and well-being), SDG 4 (quality education), SDG 5 (gender equality), SDG 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure), SDG 13 (climate action), and SDG 17 (partnerships for the Goals), revealing the need for improved policy coherence. To transform the trajectory of SDG 8, the SDG 8 Expert Group Meeting in February 2025 identified a set of interlinked policy priorities, highlighting the need to:
- Reposition decent work at the center of economic policy;
- Universalize social protection;
- Foster formalization through rights-based strategies;
- Uphold labor rights and strengthen institutions; and
- Govern the digital and green transitions.
Other policy priorities include investing in the care economy, realigning trade and supply chains with decent work, strengthening data and monitoring systems, and bridging generations and promoting lifelong inclusion.
HLPF 2025 will convene in New York, US, from 14-23 July. In addition to SDG 8, it will review SDG 3 (good health and well-being), SDG 5 (gender equality), SDG 14 (life below water), and SDG 17 (partnerships for the Goals). The HLPF’s 2025 theme is ‘Advancing sustainable, inclusive, science- and evidence-based solutions for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals for leaving no one behind.’ [HLPF 2025][ECOSOC newsletter announcing the HLPF | subscribe to the ECOSOC newsletter]