25 November 2012: International Labour Organization (ILO) Executive Director for Employment, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, highlighted six megatrends influencing jobs and human development around the world, in a speech at the ILO-Rokin Symposium in Osaka, Japan, on 25 November 2012.

Salazar-Xirinachs described a “Great Transformation” occurring alongside the global recession, influenced by six long-term, game-changing structural forces. These are: technological change; the emergence of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRICs) in the world economy; demographic change including aging and migration; mismatches between the skills required by employers and those offered by job-seekers, partly due to long-term unemployment and skills obsolescence; the need for energy efficiency and green growth; and growing income inequality.

He noted the increasing global consensus, as reflected in the outcome of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20), around the objective of shifting to energy-efficient, low-carbon growth paths, saying that green growth offers job opportunities, but also “job destruction” in unsustainable technologies. Rising education levels in the BRICs and other developing countries, he said, is changing the nature of global competition for talent. Salazar-Xirinachs expressed concern at the rising share of “non-regular workers” in the labor pool, especially women and young people, who are paid lower wages, work fewer hours and change jobs frequently.

To promote sustainable recovery from the global crisis, he called for: supporting infrastructure investment; improving access to bank funding for small and medium enterprises (SMEs); extending the coverage of social protection; and investing in job prospects for youth.

He commended the Government of Japan’s “Strategy for the Rebirth of Japan,” which includes targets and plans to increase labor force participation of young people, women and older workers, and its green growth strategy. [ILO Press Release]