With 1.2 billion young people across emerging economies reaching working age over the next decade and only about 420 million jobs expected to be generated, the need to create jobs has never been greater. Urgent, deliberate action to spur private sector growth can strengthen economic and social stability, reduce mass migration, improve livelihoods, enhance resilience to economic, climate, and other shocks, and prevent people from falling back into poverty—all to the benefit of both emerging and developed economies.
More than just a source of income, jobs provide dignity and purpose. They unlock potential in the places where people already live, empower women, engage young people, strengthen communities, create business opportunities, and reduce the need for international aid and social assistance. Giving people the means to support themselves and their families can help lift entire communities out of poverty and foster economic stability.
At the World Bank Group, creating more and better jobs has long been central to our mission; and going forward, we will prioritize job creation as an explicit aim of everything we do.
We’re taking a three-part approach to the jobs challenge across the institution.
- The World Bank Group—particularly IBRD and IDA—establishes the preconditions for jobs by helping countries invest in infrastructure, health, education, and other key areas. Our financing is linked to real results, so every dollar delivers impact. We also advance practical reforms like better tax systems that boost countries’ domestic resource mobilization so they can finance their development priorities with less assistance.
- Our Knowledge Bank and new analytics inform our work with countries to create a predictable regulatory environment through strengthened governance, reinforced transparency and anti-corruption, and business-enabling policies that create the right conditions for private investment.
- The World Bank Group—especially IFC and MIGA—supports businesses of all sizes with financing, equity, guarantees, and political risk insurance to help crowd in investors; and ICSID provides resolution solutions for international investment disputes. With public and development funds limited, mobilizing private capital is a crucial piece of the financing puzzle to catalyze entrepreneurship, competition, and, ultimately, demand for labor.
The World Bank Group supports countries through the entire life cycle of job creation. Our ultimate goal is to help countries build dynamic private sectors that convert growth into local jobs — not by shifting work from developed countries, but by unlocking opportunity where people already live. That means strengthening sectors like infrastructure and energy, agribusiness, health care, tourism, and local manufacturing in mineral rich nations to fuel a more vibrant, homegrown economy.