Tackling the productivity challenge

Productivity is slowing in advanced economies and the trend has spread to emerging economies. These low productivity levels are making it more difficult for countries and regions to overcome the current mix of social and economic challenges because productivity is needed to create better jobs and the so-called fiscal space to finance social programmes such as pensions and improved health care.

The ILO’s World Employment and Social Outlook – Trends 2023 report (WESO Trends) released in January 2023, described productivity as “key to addressing today’s multiple crises” and “a linchpin of a just transition”. So how can productivity be improved and how can those gains be channelled to build the foundations of a just transition to a more sustainable and equitable future?