On speaking at the spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, ILO Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo further stressed the need to reinforce investment in social policies, institutions and concerted and coordinated action at all levels.

Referring to the ILO’s World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2024, the director general recalled that real wages declined in most G20 countries, despite the downward trend of global unemployment turning employment into the upward direction.

Houngbo warned of the rise in the number of workers living in extreme poverty by nearly one million people.

The authority further addressed the challenges of long-term structural transformations in the world of work, including the effects of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), climate transition and divergent social protection trajectories of high- and low-income countries.

On the AI impact on the labor market, the official detailed it will be significant and predicted that some 75 million jobs could be fully automated.

Houngbo pointed to the “very different” social protection trajectories around the world, with high-income countries approaching universal coverage, while low-income nations report little progress since 2015.

ILO’s leader noted that lack of investments in social protection is a major cause of insufficient social coverage identifying international solidarity as essential for low-income countries to close the financing gap.

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