A Focus on the Geography of Work
Where jobs are created matters just as much as what and how jobs are created, not only at the global level, but at the sub-national level, down to regions and cities. National averages can mask substantial disparities at the sub-national level, which lie at the heart of social discontent in countries worldwide: witness the Gilets Jaunes movement in France, the political divide between communities in the United States and the UK, and social unrest across Latin America.
Rethinking the Social Contract at the Local Level
In many communities and cities worldwide, the social contract has been fractured and needs to be repaired through more active citizen involvement. Citizens, firms, and key local stakeholders can help focus on the most pressing social and economic challenges, such as the future of work, and contribute to developing solutions through a series of creative engagement mechanisms. The future is more local than ever, which is among the reasons the GLRI 2020 focuses on the geography of work, particularly regions and cities.
A Comprehensive Perspective on Resilience
The GLRI 2020 assesses 145 countries and economies on the resilience of their labour markets, based on 11 dimensions and 60 indicators drawn from a wide range of international sources. It considers both longer-term structural factors, demographics, level of economic development and sophistication, economic diversification, and inequality, and shorter-term policy factors, including education and skills, labour policy, innovation, entrepreneurship, technology, and statistics. By measuring the gap between structural and policy factors, the Index also highlights the labour-resilience gap, identifying the countries with the greatest potential to improve resilience in the shorter term.
GLRI results show a strong overall positive correlation with productivity (0.6), and a negative correlation with unemployment for OECD and some other country groups (greater than −0.4).
