Private sector services to create jobs

According to the latest International Labour Organisation (ILO) World Economic and Social Outlook, the greatest single source of new jobs would be found in private sector services.

It said jobs would be found in areas such as business and administrative services, and real estate.

According to the report, these and related industries would employ more than a third of the global workforce over the next five years.

The report which was made available to Ghana News Agency on Friday points to accelerating job growth in private sector services over the next five years and an increasing demand for higher-skilled workers.

It said public services in health care, education and administration would continue to be a major source of employment; while increasing at a slower pace, they would still represent 15 per cent of total employment.

In contrast, the report said industrial employment is expected to stabilise globally at slightly below 22 per cent.

It said this is because the pace of job creation in the construction sector would decline in comparison to the period 2010-2013, although it is expected to remain above two per cent per year on average.

It noted that employment levels in manufacturing, meanwhile, would remain largely unchanged over the next five years and would account for only 12 per cent of all jobs in 2019.

“Service sector employment will remain the most dynamic with respect to job creation in the next five years,” Raymond Torres, Head of the ILO Research Department said.

The report said the shift of employment to services and the decline in manufacturing means a significant change in the skills demanded by the labour market.

“There will be a hollowing out of jobs needing medium levels of skill for routine tasks that can be automated,” Torres explained.

The report pointed out that individuals who once occupied these jobs would need to acquire new skills or instead face the prospect of competing for jobs at the lower end of the skill spectrum.

“There is also growing demand for jobs that require face-to-face interaction, such as in health and personal services. This signals the emergence of a large care economy,” it stated.

It said the global trends show significant regional variations, with medium-skilled jobs disappearing in advanced economies at a faster pace than was the case in emerging and developing countries.

The report said the polarisation between higher and lower-skilled jobs is having a direct impact on labour incomes.

It said the increase in jobs at both the lower and upper ends of the skills ladder, at the expense of those in the middle, had and would continue to contribute to widening income inequality.

“Employment shifts also affect consumption and poverty levels. The number of routine jobs, such as machine operator or assembler has decreased in many countries, raising concerns over the role of manufacturing in helping workers to escape poverty,” the report said.

It explained that without manufacturing jobs, opportunities for rural workers to improve their employment situation would be scarce.

It said higher-skilled occupations are not accessible to those who lack formal education and had not opportunities for training.

“These trends highlight the role of policies to help enterprises and workers seize the opportunities associated with new technology, while at the same time breaking barriers for moving up the economic and social ladder, especially for women,” Torres said.