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KDI 경제교육·정보센터

Economic Information and Education Center

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World Employment and Social Outlook: May 2025 Update

The latest edition of the World Employment and Social Outlook (WESO) Trends reveals new data on job growth forecasts, shifting employment trends, income inequality, and the implications of technological change. It also explores the risks tied to rising geopolitical tensions and trade disruptions, and their ripple effects across regions and sectors. The economic and labour market outlook for 2025 is increasingly fragile, with global GDP growth recently revised down to 2.8 per cent from 3.2 per cent due to persistent geopolitical tensions, recent trade disruptions, and heightened uncertainty. Labour markets remain resilient but show signs that labour demand is weakening: in countries with available high-frequency data (mostly high-income), low unemployment coexists with job vacancies below their long-term trend and declining business and consumer confidence in the first quarter of 2025. Over the past decade, global economic growth has been moderately employment-intensive, with productivity growth outpacing employment growth, but the persistence, and in some cases expansion, of informal employment remains a critical concern in developing countries. The labour income share fell from 53.0 per cent in 2014 to 52.4 per cent in 2024, reinforcing upward pressure on inequality. Over the past decade, shifts in the occupational structure of employment were substantial. Generative AI is set to transform the labour market, though its future impact remains difficult to predict.

ILO 2025.06.13