The paper’s authors say that aside from challenging macroeconomic headwinds, labour markets around the world are being disrupted by an era of industry transformation. And increased adoption of technology, the green energy transition and the restructuring of value chains are also impacting job creation.
The Council will work to help leaders discover the key investment pathways to create new jobs at both a local and global level: “Industries with a high potential for job creation are industries in which investments lead to a high rate of direct and indirect job creation. Direct job creation is driven by the creation of new businesses and the growth of existing businesses.”
These are three industry sectors it identifies as having the greatest existing and future potential to drive high job creation:
1. Energy and materials
Most of the world’s economies have committed to lowering emissions to combat the climate crisis. The energy transition could lead to significant job growth as domestic renewable capacity is scaled up.
China is currently the world leader in this sector providing a 42% share of renewable energy jobs globally. The country “has secured a leading role largely due to investments in offshore installations, production of critical materials such as polysilicon and dedicated industrial parks,” the briefing paper notes.
In the US, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has created an estimated 100,000 clean energy jobs since it became law in August 2022. The Biden Administration is providing $370 billion in investments and tax incentives to turbo-charge the green energy transition in America.
2. IT and digital communications
Technology and digitalization are important drivers of direct job growth globally, but they are also significant drivers of growth elsewhere.
A study on employment growth in Europe has provided empirical evidence to support this.
“By using a standard economic growth model with employment multipliers, the authors estimate that each additional tech job leads to the generation of around five additional jobs in other sectors in Europe,” says the paper.
3. Care, personal services and well-being
Investing in care could create almost 300 million jobs globally by 2035, according to the ILO. It estimates this will include 96 million direct jobs in childcare, 136 million in long-term care, as well as 67 million indirect jobs in other non-care sectors.
Out of total net employment creation, women will hold 78% of these new jobs by 2035. The report says making the necessary investment will “reap crucial economic and social benefits”.
