Notre Dame Virtual School Theme for March is Decent Work and Economic Growth SDG#8.
Learning about SDG 8
United Cities and Local Governments
Published on Mar 17, 2016
The jobs and economy of the future will be urban. By 2030, 60% of the global population will live in cities. To ensure decent work and economic growth, local leaders face many challenges:
- YOUTH UNEMPLOYNMENT: 40 million jobs need to be created every year for young people entering the labour market
- INFORMAL LABOUR: Depending on the developing region, between 45 and 90 per cent of workers are in the informal economy.
- CHILD LABOUR AND FORCED LABOUR: There are 168 million children in child labour worldwide.
- THE GENDER PAY GAP: Women’s average wages are between 4 to 36 per cent less than men’s.
For Adults/Older Students: Video: SDG 8: Explaining decent work and economic growth (2019) (3:15)
Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University
[ https://youtu.be/xp8Tk8s-Oys ]
PDF: Why it matters?
Progress of Goal 8 in 2018
[ https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg8 ]
Globally, labour productivity has increased and the unemployment rate has decreased. However, more progress is needed to increase employment opportunities, especially for young people, reduce informal employment and labour market inequality (particularly in terms of the gender pay gap), promote safe and secure working environments, and improve access to financial services to ensure sustained and inclusive economic growth.
- In 2016, real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita grew at 1.3 per cent globally, less than the 1.7 per cent average growth rate recorded in 2010–2016. For LDCs, the rate fell sharply from 5.7 per cent in 2005–2009 to 2.3 per cent in 2010–2016.
- Labour productivity at the global level, measured as output produced per employed person in constant 2005 US dollars, grew by 2.1 per cent in 2017. This is the fastest growth registered since 2010.
- Globally, 61 per cent of all workers were engaged in informal employment in 2016. Excluding the agricultural sector, 51 per cent of all workers fell into this employment category.
- Data from 45 countries suggest that gender inequality in earnings is still pervasive: in 89 per cent of these countries, the hourly wages of men are, on average, higher than those of women, with a median pay gap of 12.5 percent.
