At the end of a meeting where the fault-lines in the global economy have been in sharp focus, here are the biggest work-related stories from Thursday’s discussions.
1. Getting refugees into the labour market
There are 80 million displaced people in the world and these figures are set to rise, with the potential for climate refugees, economic refugees and even more refugees fleeing conflict. In 2022, more than 6 million people have been displaced by war in Ukraine alone.
When refugees arrive in a new country, they often face barriers to integration. “It’s always the same barriers,” said the Adecco Group’s Chief Sales and Marketing Officer Valerie Beaulieu: administration, language, the difficulty of transferring qualifications, and housing.
Supporting refugees means implementing solutions large and small, from governments to grassroots. The private sector also has an important role to play, but how? “Go to your core business,” Beaulieu advised. “Don't try to do something that you don't know how to do.”
In Adecco’s case, this meant building the Jobs for Ukraine platform in collaboration with NGOs to help connect Ukrainian refugees to opportunities, training and support for re-entering the labour market in their new homes. This enabled a wider mobilisation of the private sector. “We have over 1500 companies from the private sector offering jobs to refugees”, said Beaulieu. “Having a proactive and deliberate inclusion towards refugees is a condition to make it successful to integrate them.”
Watch the full World Economic Forum session with Valérie Beaulieu below.