World Employment and Social Outlook Trends 2022: International Labor Organization Report

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Labor is essential to our economies and without considering people in our equations we have lost touch with the root of economic equilibrium. While technology helps augment labor we will still need the human capacity and abilities to meet challenges. The Pandemic has taught us that those who do not have education and are not at least partly tech savvy will suffer more than those who have learned those skills. Poorer countries suffered more than rich countries, laborers suffer more than online workers, and minorities suffer the most! 

It doesn't have to be that way......

The U.S. did pretty well once the pandemic ended and that was based in part on its state of technological development at that time and the capacity of a prior generation's infrastructure. Not all countries and people can say the same and it was apparent the differences from performers and non-performers. Those difference can grow or shrink depending on how we decide many smaller challenges on a day-to-day basis.

Such disparity also helps us better understand the direction that the U.S. should head if it wants to master upcoming challenges that are likely to be realized over the next 10-20 years. Inequalities, poor educational systems, unequal justice systems, declining trust in societal institutions, politics/governance, increase capitalistic opportunities and many more will need to change to an emerging youth that no longer lives by the beliefs of prior generations and refuse to be locked out of opportunities.

Human capital and the ability to develop people's abilities across a wide spectrum and stratus of society leads to continued future growth. To many who have been advantaged by established interest these are abstract and easily discarded concepts of philosophers and dreamers; and yet we sort of intuitively know them to be true. Cracks have formed and those cracks can lead to national rebuilding efforts or faster crumbling of foundations. Its a choice!

Within the report you will find how different regions of the world were impacted and some of the reasons as to why that may have happened. To understand the labor market and future labor trends we can read how different countries succeeded and failed. (While not in the report new advanced wearable tech for manufacturing and other purposes is likely to change some of those equations for advanced manufacturing nations with higher levels of education, skill, human capital.)

A couple of key points from the report 'World Employment and Social Outlook Trends 2022':

-Pandemic recovery is uneven and tilted toward wealthier countries. (Starting early and being central to the supply chain helps.)

-Economies with labor intensive exports didn't do as well (One reason US should innovate to hedge human skill and technology.)

-Developed nations saw increases in business. (We may find in 5-10 years after the pandemic that some of those businesses will bump the economy. I suspect that in 2023-2024 we will also see a bump as new strategic patterns learned from the Pandemic are more fully implemented.)

-Inflation seems to be a result of demand, supply chain, and patterns of opening.

-Those who work from home and have access to technology do better (One reason why the U.S. should move into an advanced digital age.)

-Annual growth of wages in the U.S. but a lower real minimum wage (Likely meaning that lower skilled labor is losing financial ground.).

International Labor Organization (2022). The World Employment and Social Outlook Trends 2022. Retrieved Web Location.