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IOL News
15 hours ago
- Business
- IOL News
G20 faces a generational test amid geopolitical challenges
Delegates to the U20 African Mayors Assembly at the Union Buildings, Pretoria on June 17, 2025. Image: DIRCO Alvin Botes Since December 1 last year until the Leaders' Summit in November 2025, South Africa chairs the world's most influential economic forum, that is the G20, under the theme: 'Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability'. The theme signals our determination to put people — not profits — at the centre of global decision-making. Our high-level priorities are clear and interlinked. Firstly, inclusive economic growth, industrialisation, employment and the reduction of inequality. Secondly, food security in an era of climate disruption. Thirdly, harnessing artificial intelligence and broader technological innovation for sustainable development. Complementing these three priorities is our drive for disaster-risk resilience and fair debt-relief architecture so that climate-vulnerable and heavily indebted countries are not forced to choose between servicing loans and saving lives. The stakes could not be higher. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) reports that global unemployment is hovering near a historic low of five per cent, yet globally the average for young people remains stubbornly high — about 13 per cent worldwide, and more than double that in many developing economies. Here at home, 4.8 million South Africans aged 15–34 are unemployed; 58 per cent of them have never had a single day of paid work, and our youth unemployment rate climbed to 46.1 per cent in the first quarter of this year. Beyond the headline numbers lurk deeper structural hazards: one in five young Africans is classified as NEET—'not in employment, education or training'—and those already in work face a future in which artificial intelligence-driven automation could render up to 40 per cent of entry-level jobs obsolete by 2035, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report. Compounding that uncertainty are intersecting crises of mental-health fragility, climate anxiety, escalating conflict-driven displacement, and the rising cost of living that now consumes, on average, 38 per cent of a young person's monthly income across the G20. Add to that what the economist Adam Tooze calls a global 'poly-crisis' which includes, amongst others, geopolitical polarisation, climate-related disasters, food-price shocks and widening digital divides. And it becomes clear why the South African presidency has framed 2025 as a make-or-break moment for multilateral cooperation. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. 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Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Geopolitically, the world is also experiencing what some economists such as Mark Blyth, Mohamed El-Erian and Michael Spence call a 'perma-crisis': the United States and China are locked in an uneasy dance of de-risking, Russia-Ukraine war continues to reshape energy and grain markets, and simmering conflicts from the Red Sea to the Sahel threaten already fragile supply chains. At the same time, global public debt has surpassed US $100 trillion, forcing developing nations to divert scarce resources away from youth programmes toward interest payments. In the Employment Working Group of the Sherpa Track, we are negotiating a compact on youth employment and skills, building on the Antalya Goals (which were agreed to during Türkiye's presidency of the G20) but adding targets for digital-economy apprenticeships, recognition of micro-credentials and mutual portability of qualifications across G20 members. If endorsed by leaders, the compact will potentially translate into an estimated 10 million paid internship placements over five years, with a gender-parity clause and an annual public scorecard so you can hold the G20 accountable. In the Finance Track, we are advancing an 'Innovation & Inclusion Facility' financed through blended public-private instruments to support start-ups led by women and young people in frontier technologies and green manufacturing. Its first-phase endowment of US $3 billion will be disbursed via challenge funds that prioritise township and rural enterprises, with a target of 150,000 sustainable jobs by 2027. In the Agriculture Working Group and the Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group, we are championing a Just Agri-Transition Facility that links smallholder farmers, including youth, to climate-smart finance and regional value chains. Beyond financing climate-resilient seed and drip-irrigation systems, the facility will underwrite a Pan-African farmers marketplace app that is targeted at youth and guarantees offtake agreements with regional supermarket chains. Finally, our AI priority aims to deliver a 'Pan-G20 Youth Digital Corps,' a volunteer-to-employment pipeline that pairs South African coders with continental and global partners to solve public-sector data challenges. The G20 was born out of the 1997 Asian financial meltdown and re-energised amid the 2008 crash. It now faces a generation-defining test: can it propel the global economy so that young people inherit not debts and droughts but opportunity and hope? South Africa believes it can—if the world finally listens to its largest demographic - the youth. * Alvin Botes is Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation. ** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL, Independent Media or The African.
The Star
a day ago
- Business
- The Star
AI's arrival at work reshaping employers' hunt for talent
Predictions of imminent AI-driven mass unemployment are likely overblown, but employers will seek workers with different skills as the technology matures, a top executive at global recruiter ManpowerGroup told AFP at Paris's Vivatech trade fair. The world's third-largest staffing firm by revenue ran a startup contest at Vivatech in which one of the contenders was building systems to hire out customisable autonomous AI "agents", rather than humans. Their service was reminiscent of a warning last month from Dario Amodei, head of American AI giant Anthropic, that the technology could wipe out half of entry-level white-collar jobs within one to five years. For ManpowerGroup, AI agents are "certainly not going to become our core business any time soon," the company's Chief Innovation Officer Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic said. "If history shows us one thing, it's most of these forecasts are wrong." An International Labour Organization (ILO) report published in May found that around "one in four workers across the world are in an occupation with some degree of exposure" to generative AI models' capabilities. "Few jobs are currently at high risk of full automation," the ILO added. But the UN body also highlighted "rapid expansion of AI capabilities since our previous study" in 2023, including the emergence of "agentic" models more able to act autonomously or semi-autonomously and use software like web browsers and email. 'Soft skills' Chamorro-Premuzic predicted that the introduction of efficiency-enhancing AI tools would put pressure on workers, managers and firms to make the most of the time they will save. "If what happens is that AI helps knowledge workers save 30, 40, maybe 50% of their time, but that time is then wasted on social media, that's not an increase in net output," he said. Adoption of AI could give workers "more time to do creative work" – or impose "greater standardization of their roles and reduced autonomy," the ILO said. There's general agreement that interpersonal skills and an entrepreneurial attitude will become more important for knowledge workers as their daily tasks shift towards corralling AIs. Employers identified ethical judgement, customer service, team management and strategic thinking as top skills AI could not replace in a ManpowerGroup survey of over 40,000 employers across 42 countries published this week. Nevertheless, training that adopts those new priorities has not increased in step with AI adoption, Chamorro-Premuzic lamented. "For every dollar you invest in technology, you need to invest eight or nine on HR, culture transformation, change management," he said. He argued that such gaps suggest companies are still chasing automation, rather than the often-stated aim of augmenting human workers' capabilities with AI. AI hiring AI? One of the areas where AI is transforming the world of work most rapidly is ManpowerGroup's core business of recruitment. But here candidates are adopting the tools just as quickly as recruiters and companies, disrupting the old way of doing things from the bottom up. "Candidates are able to send 500 perfect applications in one day, they are able to send their bots to interview, they are even able to game elements of the assessments," Chamorro-Premuzic said. That extreme picture was not borne out in a survey of over 1,000 job seekers released last week by recruitment platform TestGorilla, which found just 17% of applicants admitting to cheating on tests, and only some of those to using AI. Jobseekers' use of consumer AI tools meets recruiters doing the same. The same TestGorilla survey found almost two-thirds of the more-than-1,000 hiring decision-makers polled used AI to generate job descriptions and screen applications. But a far smaller share are already using the technology to actually interview candidates. Where employers today are focused on candidates' skills over credentials, Chamorro-Premuzic predicted that "the next evolution is to focus on potential, not even skills even if I know the skills you bring to the table today, they might be obsolete in six months." "I'm better off knowing that you're hard-working, that you are curious, that you have good people skills, that you're not a jerk – and that, AI can help you evaluate," he believes. – AFP
Time of India
a day ago
- Politics
- Time of India
State govt revives plan to eliminate child labour by '30
1 2 Ranchi: The state department of labour, employment, training, and skill development and the child protection society, with the technical support of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Bal Kalyan Sangh, on Thursday revived a draft state Action Plan for Elimination of Child Labour by 2030. The draft, which integrates learnings from the 2012–16 plan and responds to the present legal and socio-economic contexts, aims to serve as a roadmap for the next five years. The plan is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8.7, which targets to end child labour in all its forms by 2030. Department secretary Jitendra Kumar Singh said, "The state saw a 78% decline in child labour between 2001 and 2011, surpassing national average. Our task now is to build a coordinated, multi-stakeholder response. The draft will undergo consultations before submission to the state cabinet for approval. The labour department will be the nodal agency for its implementation." The national project coordinator with the ILO, Narasimhan Gadiraju, said, "While the framework remains similar to earlier plans, this draft reflects upon legal advancements, including the ratification of ILO Conventions 138 and 182, post 2016. It provides a clearer definition of a child and places the responsibility squarely on the state govt for execution and periodic review. Jharkhand had over 91,000 child labourers as per the 2011 Census." The chief technical advisor with the ILO, Giovanni Soledad, said, "The reduction in child labour from 160 million in 2020 to 138 million in 2024 in Asia and the Pacific region is a positive trend. There is, however, a need to accelerate efforts with greater investment in education and social protection to meet the target by 2030." Joint labour commissioner Pradip Lakra said, "The labour department cannot shoulder this responsibility alone. We are now strengthening our presence at the block level and increasing the number of field staff to boost identification, rescue, and rehabilitation mechanisms."
Time of India
a day ago
- Business
- Time of India
‘60% of all child labour globally is in agri sector'
1 2 Michiko Miyamoto, the director of the International Labour Organization (ILO) talks to TOI's Kritika Tiwary on the global and local dimensions of child labour, prevailing challenges and interventions to eliminate child labour in line with global development goals. Excerpts... Globally, what's the current trend of child labour? We are seeing a downward trend. However, this progress is uneven and fragile. The last major increase occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic, which was a serious setback. The most recent global estimates show a reduction from 160 million children in 2020 to 138 million in 2024. What are the sector-wise trends? Which sector is the most affected? The agriculture sector remains the most dominant, accounting for nearly 60% of all child labour globally. It is followed by industries and services. Agriculture is particularly difficult to regulate due to its informal and scattered nature, especially in rural areas, making inspection and enforcement challenging. What changes have been observed in the context of child labour in India in recent years? In India, there has been a notable shift. Many big brands have cleaned up their formal supply chains due to global scrutiny and awareness. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Høreproblemer? Bliv en del af AudioNova's gratis testpanel, hvis du er født før 1970 Audionova Lær mere Undo However, child labour persists in the informal sectors, particularly in agriculture and small-scale family-based enterprises. There has been progress in public awareness but hidden forms of child labour remain a major concern, especially in rural and tribal belts. What are the major causes, especially in India? The root causes are poverty, lack of access to quality education and weak social protection systems. When families are economically vulnerable, there are no safety nets and children are often forced to work. Cultural factors like child marriage and gender also perpetuate child labour. Women education and empowerment play a vital role and an educated mother is more likely to prioritize schooling for her children. Are the existing national or state action plans in combating it effective? Action plans are crucial. They reflect the official commitment of the govt and provide a structured roadmap for all stakeholders. For instance, Jharkhand had a state action plan from 2012 to 2016, but no updated version was released after that. However, after consistent dialogue, the state labour department has recently agreed to revive and update the plan and the draft of the new plan is ready for launch. With proper implementation, budgeting and coordination, such plans can bring systemic and sustained change.
India Today
3 days ago
- Business
- India Today
EPFO raises auto-settlement limit to Rs 5 lakh for faster fund access
The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has announced a major enhancement to its auto-settlement limit, increasing it from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 move, revealed by Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, is designed to facilitate faster fund access for countless EPFO members, particularly during times of urgent financial need.A MOVE FOR QUICK FINANCIAL ACCESSThe EPFO initially introduced the auto-settlement of advance claims during the COVID-19 pandemic to offer quick financial assistance. Over time, this system has been extended to cover advances for illness, education, marriage, and housing. These claims are now handled entirely by the system, without human intervention, ensuring faster processing and greater transparency, said the Union GROWTH IN AUTO-SETTLEMENTS In the fiscal year 2024-25, the EPFO processed a record 2.34 crore advance claims through the auto-settlement process, marking a 161% increase compared to the previous fact, 59% of all advance claims last year were settled through the auto mode, up from just 31% in 2023-24. Further, in the first two-and-a-half months of FY 2025-26, the EPFO has already cleared 76.52 lakh claims automatically, which is 70% of all advance claims, stated the RECOGNITIONThe Minister also shared that the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has praised India for its efforts to expand social security. According to the ILO, 64.3% of the Indian population, which is around 94 crore people, are now covered under at least one social protection is a major leap from 2015, when only 19% of the population had such coverage. In terms of the number of beneficiaries, India now ranks second in the world.- EndsMust Watch
