This Short Note is part of a series building on the report Working without Borders: The Promise and Peril of Online Gig Work. While local/regional platforms may not have received as much attention as global platforms, they play an important role for the local labor market and the local private sector ecosystem in many developing countries. This note addresses the following questions: What are the distinguishing features of local/regional gig online platforms, compared to global ones? What role can local/regional online platforms play on both the supply side (in supporting inclusion in developing countries) as well on the demand side (in addressing needs of local firms)? What challenges do local/regional platforms face in building a sustainable business model, and how can these challenges be addressed?.

This Short Note is part of a series building on the report Working Without Borders: The Promise and Peril of Online Gig Work. This note aims to provide some practical tips for practitioners like World Bank task team leaders in implementing online gig work programs to enable vulnerable populations - such as youth, women, persons with disabilities - to access online gig jobs to support their social and economic inclusion. Governments can use the potential of online gig work to build human capital, develop the nation’s digital skills, and provide opportunities to supplement household income.

This Short Note is part of a series building on the report Working Without Borders: The Promise and Peril of Online Gig Work. This short note is based on a survey conducted in one of the largest microwork platforms and supplemented by data scraping from the same platform. Using descriptive statistics, network analysis, constrained linear optimization, linear regressions, and case studies, the note attempts to shed light on the world of microwork, which presents a low entry barrier opportunity for low-skilled people to supplement their incomes and participate in the digital economy. Microworkers are more likely to be young, male, possessing a range of skills, and residing outside capital cities.

This Short Note is part of a series building on the report Working without Borders: The Promise and Peril of Online Gig Work. flexibility of working hours and location associated with online gig work uniquely positions it as an avenue to boost female labor force participation, especially in regions with limited local job opportunities. This short note takes a deep dive into gender-based disparities in access to these new forms of work, especially asking whether there is a gender gap in hourly rates that online gig workers ask for and earn from online tasks. The analysis uses data from over 19,000 profiles on one of the largest English-language freelancing platforms. Data from one of the largest global freelancing platforms shows that women quote approximately 10 percent lower hourly rates than men, likely reflecting a difference in confidence.

The Jeans Redesign (2019-2023) aimed to revolutionize jeans production for a circular fashion economy. Partnering with industry experts, the project created guidelines for brands to design jeans that are durable, recyclable, and made with minimal environmental impact. Launched in 2021, these guidelines have been adopted by over 100 organizations, leading to the creation of more sustainable jeans and a significant step towards a more responsible fashion industry.

Program engaged young people in Nigeria, Mali, Somalia and Somaliland, with a mission to unlock their potential, build their confidence and equip them with the essential skills required for successful careers or entrepreneurial ventures. The program ran from 2016 to 2023 and was developed and executed with diverse local partners and a consortium of partners in the Netherlands, and funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This project, represented by the eleven studies discussed in this volume, set out to explore two broad questions: What are the experiences of individual workers and sellers as they rely on platforms to earn a living? What are the opportunities improve those experiences?

This Note identifies the jobs most conducive to global work and estimates the size of global digital jobs. The paper sets the stage for future discussions on strategies to create a successful and equitable global digital workforce and calls for leaders and policy-makers to prepare for the future of work.

Engaging in the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) as international development cooperation (DC) organisation involves navigating a dynamic and multifaceted landscape. This guide provides a comprehensive framework to assist organisations in understanding and analysing the CCI and in planning, implementing, and evaluating initiatives that contribute to the sustainable development of the CCI. It aims to assist international DC organisations to collaborate effectively with creative communities worldwide and implement projects successfully. This guide recognises the intrinsic value of culture and creativity in fostering economic growth, cultural expression, and social inclusion. Furthermore, it acknowledges these factors in the context of their contribution to the goals of many international DC organisations, such as: job and income generation, innovation promotion, climate change, gender equality, just transition, and disrupting postcolonial continuities. The guide has been formulated within the framework of the Global Project CCI, executed by the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut, commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

This S4YE Note analyzes the importance of the fashion industry for socio-economic growth and examines its potential as a source of job opportunities for young people. It discusses jobs along the industry’s value chain, its contribution to global revenues and trade, and its evolution with changes in technology, environmental concerns, and changing consumption patterns. The note also highlights the skills required for jobs in the fashion industry and presents analysis to support the claim that the industry is a key driver of jobs for youth and women. The note concludes with policy recommendations to promote circular economy job creation, skill development of young talent, and investment in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the fashion industry.

This is an article about workforce development in global value chains. It discusses the skills needed to participate in the global economy. The article also details challenges faced by countries trying to educate their workforce to meet these demands.

The report reveals a complex global employment scenario. It forecasts a slight increase in global unemployment in 2024, signalling emerging labour market challenges. The report highlights disparities between high and low-income countries, noting higher unemployment and poverty rates in lower-income nations. It also points out that a significant portion of the global workforce remains in informal employment.

This is a report about the Nestlé Needs YOUth Initiative. It discusses the initiative's goals and achievements over ten years. The initiative was launched to improve young people's employment prospects. It has since expanded to include entrepreneurship and agripreneurship programs. Nestlé Needs YOUth has provided thousands of work opportunities and training sessions. The program emphasizes mentorship and aims to empower young people.

This document outlines how Duolingo is utilizing AI to support education for refugees.

This paper documents near-exponential growth in the demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-related skills in India’s services sector since 2016, using a new dataset of online vacancies from its largest jobs website. It evaluates the impact of demand for AI skills on establishment-level non-AI postings in the short term using an event study, and medium term using a shiftshare design that exploits variation in exposure to new AI inventions.

This S4YE Discussion Note explores the role of the blue economy, especially fisheries, as a source of productive and sustainable jobs for youth. The research discusses the importance of understanding how the blue economy is changing in response to trends in technological innovation, environmental concerns, and the move towards a circular economy. Finally, the note discusses four main types of policy interventions that can help support job opportunities for youth in ocean-based industries: 1) deepening youth employment data analysis, 2) closing blue skills gaps, 3) improving the attractiveness and awareness of blue careers among youth; and 4) promoting youth entrepreneurship and innovation in blue economy sectors.

As societies become increasingly digital, cyber security has become a priority for individuals, companies and nations. The number of cyber attacks is exceeding defence capabilities, and one reason for this is the lack of an adequately skilled cyber security workforce. This report analyses the demand for cyber security professionals in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States using information contained in online job postings. The analysis looks at recent trends in the demand for workers in different types of cyber security roles, the geographical distribution of cyber security job postings, and the changing skill requirements for professionals in this field. The report also looks at the supply side, zooming in on the landscape of cyber security education and training programmes in England (United Kingdom). It describes the different types of programmes provided in further and higher education, the profile of learners in these programmes and their outcomes. Finally, the report also looks at policies and initiatives adopted in England to make cyber security education and training programmes more accessible and relevant. This report is part of a larger initiative examining the evolution of policies and experiences in the cyber security profession around the world.

This paper assesses the reliability and validity of cognitive and socioemotional skills measures and investigates the correlation between schooling, skills acquisition, and labor earnings. The primary data from Pakistan incorporates two innovations related to measurement and sampling. On measurement, the paper develops and implements a battery of instruments intended to capture cognitive and socioemotional skills among young adults. On sampling, the paper uses a panel that follows respondents from their original rural locations in 2003 to their residences in 2018, a period over which 38 percent of the respondents left their native villages. In terms of their validity and reliability, our skills measures compare favorably to previous measurement attempts in low- and middle-income countries. The following are documented in the data: (a) more years of schooling are correlated with higher cognitive and socioemotional skills; (b) labor earnings are correlated with cognitive and socioemotional skills as well as years of schooling; and (c) the earnings-skills correlations depend on respondents’ migration status. The magnitudes of the correlations between schooling and skills on the one hand and earnings and skills on the other are consistent with a widespread concern that such skills are underproduced in the schooling system.

Discover the fastest-growing skills with the new Job Skills of 2024 Report from Coursera. This data-rich report draws on skills data from Coursera’s nearly 5 million enterprise learners across 3,000 businesses, 3,600 higher education institutions, and governments in over 100 countries.

Since 2018, the German Federal Ministry for  Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has been promoting the sector cultural and creative industries (CCI) through its implementing organisations Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale  Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Goethe-Institut. This future oriented sector offers important levers for the implementation of a feminist development policy, which is a priority of the BMZ. Almost half of employees in the CCI sector are women but they often work under precarious conditions. The sector offers the potential to contribute to gender equality in terms of necessary  improvements for women and of working conditions.