The Global Jobs Challenge

Jobs are essential to reducing poverty, promoting shared prosperity, building self-sufficient economies, and strengthening social stability. Between 2025 and 2035, about 1.2 billion young people will reach working age in developing economies. Meeting the global jobs challenge demands urgency and scale. The World Bank Group is advancing a comprehensive jobs strategy, mobilizing public finance, knowledge, private capital, and risk management tools.

A new World Bank Group brief, The Global Jobs Challenge, highlights three policy pillars essential for job creation: foundational infrastructure (physical, human, and digital capital), a business-friendly environment, and mobilization of private capital. Complementary policies focus on five sectors with high potential for resilient, large-scale job creation: infrastructure (including energy), agribusiness, healthcare, tourism, and value-added manufacturing. The brief also provides an overview of the job-creation potential of agribusiness and energy, based on discussions at the 2025 Africa Growth and Opportunity: Research in Action (AGORA) Conference, held in Palermo, Italy.

Download The Global Jobs Challenge brief to learn more.