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View all search resultsHow to create jobs for the world's 1.2b new workers
Over the next 10 to 15 years, 1.2 billion young people in developing countries will come of working age, to a scale the world has never seen, but only 400 million jobs will be available for them.
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Career talks: A company booth attendant responds to inquiries from visitors on Jan. 29, 2026, during a job and career fair at the Muladi Dome in Diponegoro University in Semarang, Central Java. (Antara/Makna Zaezar)
The world moves on different wavelengths. Some are high-frequency shocks, wars, emerging technologies and market panics, that spike quickly and dominate our attention. Others are low frequency forces that move slowly but relentlessly: demographics, globalization, water and food scarcity.
The high-frequency waves feel urgent. The low-frequency waves reshape the system.
That is not to say crises don’t matter. But we cannot become casualties of the slow burn simply because the immediate crisis burns hotter or dominates more headlines. Ignore the slow burn long enough, and it becomes an inferno.
One of those forces is already in motion. Over the next 10 to 15 years, 1.2 billion young people in developing countries will come of working age, a scale the world has never seen. On current trajectories, these economies are expected to generate only about 400 million jobs over that same period, leaving a gap of staggering proportions.
This is often framed as a development challenge, and it is. It is also an economic challenge. And it is increasingly a national security challenge.
What was striking at the Davos conference in Switzerland last month was how easily this issue was brushed aside, overshadowed by the urgency of the issue du jour. It must not be ignored at coming forums like the Munich Security Conference, the G7 and G20.
If we invest early in people and connect them to productive work, this vast new generation can build lives of dignity and become a foundation for growth and stability. If we do not, the consequences are predictable: pressure on institutions, irregular migration, conflict and rising insecurity as young people reach for any path available to them.
