A Coming Jobs Challenge in Emerging Markets? | World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026

The Global Jobs Challenge

• ⚠️ 1.2 billion young people in emerging markets will need jobs in the next 12-15 years, but only 400 million jobs are projected, creating an 800 million gap.
• 💡 The core issue is providing hope, optimism, and employment for young people, whether as employees or entrepreneurs, to drive energy and growth.
• 🎯 Jobs must be the centerpiece for addressing global challenges like security, health, and climate change, focusing on people's need for career security, dignity, and lifelong growth.

World Bank's Strategic Pillars for Job Creation

• 🔑 The strategy focuses on infrastructure (physical, digital, and human capital), business-friendly policies for the private sector, and catalytic financing for micro and small enterprises.
• ✅ Five key sectors are prioritized for job creation: infrastructure/construction, primary healthcare, agriculture for small farmers, tourism, and value-added manufacturing.
• 🚀 These sectors are chosen to avoid over-reliance on outsourcing from developed nations and to leverage "small AI" at the local level, rather than large language models.

Technology, Energy, and Education Reform

• ⚡ Electrification is a fundamental requirement, with 600 million people in Africa lacking electricity, hindering digital public infrastructure and economic activity.
• 💡 Digital public infrastructure (like India's ID, bank accounts, mobile, digital payments) can create structured opportunities for a billion people, fostering entrepreneurship and business growth.
• 🌱 The green transition offers a significant opportunity for job creation in the developing world, particularly in renewable energy, which has higher job multipliers than fossil fuels.
• 📚 Education systems need reform to move beyond overly academic approaches, creating multiple pathways to excellence and mastery in technical, vocational, and applied streams to reduce social hierarchy.

Inclusive Growth and Valuing All Work

• 🤝 Equitable job creation must address the importance of unpaid care work, predominantly performed by women, which sustains economies but is often undervalued and not accounted for in GDP.
• 📈 Empowering micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) is crucial, as they represent the majority of employment, requiring support with finance, information, and technology.
• 🌍 Countries like Nigeria are focusing on rapid, sustained, inclusive growth by empowering young people and women through technology and supporting local manufacturing and services.

Navigating Technological Disruption

• ⚙️ Technology and innovation are great equalizers but also bring disruption, requiring a shift in the nature of jobs and the skills needed for the future workforce.
• ⚠️ Companies must prepare their workforce for AI literacy and adapt to new employment models, moving away from "employment for life" towards knowledge-based and gig economies.
• 🎯 Governments must create policies that enable large-scale investments in energy security and prepare human capital to ensure technology does not widen the equity gap.