Key readings on employment and labor markets in 2024

Source: Pixabay

What were some of the most interesting readings in 2024 on employment and labor markets? In this article you will find a list of curated resources on global workforce trends, labor market oriented education, Active Labor Market Policies, MSME development, Artificial Intelligence and more…

By Kevin Hempel | January 2025

Staying up to date with current research and practice can be challenging, especially for busy policymakers and practitioners focused on keeping day-to-day operations afloat. Therefore, I am happy to continue the tradition of compiling a list of key resources that can be useful for colleagues working on employment and labor market related topics. You can also check out our reading list for 2022 and 2023.

While the list covers a range of sub-topics, the number of readings under each sub-topic is limited to ensure that the list remains digestible. Hence, this list is not intended to be comprehensive; it is just my take on some essential readings I have come across over the year. Readers should also keep in mind that the list prioritizes publications that can be useful for stakeholders across the globe, therefore putting less emphasis on regional or country-level studies.

I hope you will find the list useful.

Global Workforce Developments

State of the Global Workplace 2024 Report (Gallup) | Presents findings from the largest global survey of employees, analyzing how mental health, labor laws, and the role of managers affect employee engagement.

Women @ Work 2024: A global outlook (Deloitte) | Global insights on women’s experience in the workplace, including about their mental health, career advancement, and safety at work.

2024 Gen Z and Millennial Survey (Deloitte) | Provides a snapshot of what Gen Zs and Millenials across the globe think about their career expectations, GenAI, mental health at work, and more.

Mental health in the workplace: A global picture (MindForward Alliance) | Based on survey data from 12 countries across the globe, the report draws a picture of mental health challenges in the workplace and provides implications for senior leadership and line managers.

Labor Market Oriented Education

Challenging social inequality through career guidance (OECD) | Provides compelling evidence on the inequitable access to career guidance for students of certain sociodemographic groups and highlights a range of interventions that can reduce such inequalities to ensure fairer access to economic opportunities.

Nurturing Social and Emotional Learning Across the Globe (OECD) | Drawing on the OECD’s global Survey on Social and Emotional Skills for 10- and 15-year-old students, the report highlights skill disparities both within and across countries and provides recommendations on how social-emotional learning can be improved through schools and other channels.

An Integrative Review of the Employability Literature (Hora et al) | A review of conceptual and empirical studies related to “employability”, highlighting the drawbacks of what has become popular terminology in education and workforce development.

Improving Teacher Uptake of Pedagogical Best Practices (ideas42) | While focused on changing teacher behavior in the context of foundational literacy and numeracy, this guide can also inform other skills development and labor market interventions seeking to influence the pedagogical practices of teachers and trainers.

Active Labor Market Policies

The State of Economic Inclusion Report 2024 (World Bank) | Highlights the progress and challenges of scaling up government-led economic inclusion programs, as well as the interplay with nongovernment actors and the private sector.

Improving job seekers’ employment and earnings through credible skills signals (J-PAL) | A review of rigorous evidence on the impact of providing skill signals (e.g. certifications, referral letters) on employment outcomes.

Barriers to Search and Hiring in Urban Labour Markets (VoxDev)| This literature review documents the barriers that prevent jobseekers and firms from “finding” each other and reviews the impacts of different interventions designed to address these barriers.

A new dawn for Public Employment Services – Service delivery in the age of AI (OECD) | Mapping of AI use cases across different functions of Public Employment Services (e.g., communication with job seekers, job matching, generating labor market information).

Targeting vulnerable groups in the labor market

Female Labour Force Participation (VoxDev) | Literature review of policies that have proven effective in increasing women’s labour supply.

Promoting Better Career Choices for Longer Working Lives (OECD) | Analysis of key employer and public policies that can help facilitate career mobility at older ages.

Refugee employment: Perspectives for businesses, policymakers, and intermediaries (World Bank) | This report presents a business case for hiring refugees, and a framework for how to boost refugee employment in the private sector.

Entrepreneurship & MSME development

A microscope on small businesses: Spotting opportunities to boost productivity (McKinsey Global Institute) | Detailed cross-country analysis of MSMEs’ productivity and implications for policymakers, large companies and MSMEs.

Market access: Connecting firms and entrepreneurs to markets to spur business and job growth (J-PAL) | Summary of existing rigorous evidence on interventions seeking to help small businesses access new market opportunities.

What works to foster productive sector development? (Interamerican Development Bank) | Takes stock of the lessons learned from impact evaluations of investments supported by the IDB Group in areas such as training, access to credit, promoting high-growth entrepreneurship, and fostering innovation.

BEAM Evidence Review 2024: The results achieved by programmes that use the MSD approach (BEAM Exchange) | Synthesis of recent evidence about the impact of programs using a market systems approach.

Artificial Intelligence & Jobs

Gen-AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work (IMF) | Analysis of AI exposure, worker reallocations, impact on inequality, and countries’ AI preparedness across advanced and developing economies.

Mind the AI Divide: Shaping a Global Perspective on the Future of Work (UN and ILO) | Discusses the uneven adoption of AI across the globe and its implications for global equity, fairness, and social justice.

AI Jobs Barometer (PwC) | Based on job ad analysis from 15 developed countries across the globe, the report provides information on job growth, wages, and skill change in AI-exposed occupations.

Green Economy

Enhancing green career guidance systems for sustainable futures (OECD) | A summary of insights from programs in primary and secondary education aimed at enhancing students’ understanding of and progression towards green careers.

Options for Green-Skilled Migration Partnerships: A Guide for Policymakers (Center for Global Development) | Analysis of different options on how facilitating green-skilled migration should be linked with investments in the training, recruitment, and retention of workers into green jobs within countries of origin.

Global Green Skills Report 2024 (LinkedIn) | Recent trends on the supply and demand for green skills, including perspectives on selected groups (women, GenZ) and specific sectors (e.g. energy production, construction, manufacturing).

Human Resources Management

Workplace Learning Report 2024 (LinkedIn) | Current trends and data on learning in the workplace.

Designing a Successful Reskilling Program (Harvard Business Review) | Article summarizing lessons learned on making reskilling initiatives successful, looking at issues such as leadership, change management, and measuring results.

Putting Skills First: Opportunities for Building Efficient and Equitable Labour Markets (World Economic Forum) | A collection of case studies on skills-based hiring.

Evaluation and Learning

Enabling Stage-Based Learning: A Funder’s Guide to Maximizing Impact (IPA) | Great report making the case to align Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning requirements according to the maturity of a program. It is closely aligned with a blog article I wrote on using the concept of maturity to guide programming and M&E.

A/B testing in education: rapid experimentation to optimise programme cost-effectiveness (Angrist et al) | Based on experience from the NGO Youth Impact, the report highlights the potential and lessons learned using A/B testing to drive data-informed programming decisions in the social sector, an approach we have also advocated for in the past.

What were your favorite readings on employment and labor markets in 2024? I would love to hear from you via email.

About the author:

Kevin Hempel is the Founder and Managing Director of Prospera Consulting, a boutique consulting firm working towards stronger policies and programs to facilitate the labor market integration of disadvantaged groups. You can follow him on LinkedIn.