G20

G20 › Topics › Employment-and-social-policy

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The OECD supports the G20 in the area of jobs, labour market policies and inclusive growth by identifying relevant responses to the jobs crisis, strategies to promote a job-rich recovery and a more inclusive type of economic growth. The OECD has notably provided extensive support to the G20 Employment Working Group.

 

As a practical step forward to tackle the jobs crisis, the G20 established the G20 Task Force on Employment (TFE), transformed into the Employment Working Group (EWG) in 2014. The G20 work on employment initially concentrated on assisting countries in sharing best practices to tackle youth unemployment, and has now extended its work to job creation (including local job creation), labour activation, the design of the G20 Employment Action Plans, as well as gender labour gap, skills and quality apprenticeship, and quality jobs and inequalities.

The OECD has made significant contributions to G20 work on employment and social policies, in co-operation with the ILO.

Overall, the OECD supported the successive presidencies of the G20 to define their agenda on employment and labour market policies, namely:

  • Youth employment under the French presidency with, for instance, a policy note on Giving Youth a Better Start (pdf); 
  • Sustainable development, green growth and quality employment for the Labour and Employment Ministers meeting in Guadalajara under the Mexican Presidency; 
  • Activation Strategies for Stronger and More Inclusive Labour Markets in G20 Countries under the Russian Presidency, 
  • The “25X25” Gender Target and quality apprenticeship, job creation and labour activation under the Australian Presidency; 
  • The development of a G20 Skills Strategy, of a quality job framework and of a Youth Employment Target under the Turkish Presidency.

The Organisation has been supporting the EWG by documenting the above issues with evidence-based analysis and putting forward policy recommendations to address them.

The OECD has also supported the EWG members to craft the G20 Employment Action Plans and to monitor labour market developments and the progress made by countries in implementing the employment agenda set by G20 Leaders.

Furthermore, the OECD and the International Labour Organization (ILO) have been contributing to the preparation of and discussions at the G20 Labour and Employment Ministerial Meetings since the first ministerial meeting in Washington on April 2010. The OECD has highlighted good policy practices drawing from our extensive policy reviews and analyses and assisted Presidencies in drafting the background material as well as the conclusions for these meetings.

Our recent contributions to the G20 Employment agenda include:

  • In 2014, OECD analysis has been instrumental in defining the G20 commitment to reducing the gender gap participation in the labour market by 25% by 2025 and in simulating its impact on jobs and growth, notably with our report Achieving stronger growth by promoting a more gender-balanced economy.

  • In 2015 the OECD supported the Turkish Presidency’s focus on inclusiveness and the several concrete deliverables and commitments agreed upon to facilitate more inclusive growth, including in the areas of youth employment, skills and job quality. In particular, we contributed to substantiate this ambitious policy package by developing a Skills Strategy and a Quality Job Framework for the G20, in conjunction with the ILO. The OECD also substantiated the Presidency’s objective for a quantitative target on youth employment and the qualitative analysis to explain its rationale. This target was set by the G20 leaders to reduce the number of youth who are low-skilled, neither in employment, education, training (NEET) or working in the informal sector by 15% by 2025 (“15 x 25”). Additionally, the OECD provided extensive inputs from its cross-sectional work on labour markets, inequality, growth, and reported on the state of implementation of agreed employment policies in G20 countries.

The OECD also contributes to the monitoring process of G20 countries’ commitments in the labour market and social policy areas (gender and youth employment targets monitoring), together with the ILO.

OECD CONTRIBUTIONS TO G20