World Bank chief sounds alarm about looming jobs crisis

The Middle East war will dominate global finance officials’ talks this week in Washington, but World Bank President Ajay Banga is sounding the alarm about a bigger, looming crisis: a huge gap in jobs for the 1.2 billion people who will reach working age in developing countries in the next 10 to 15 years.

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World Bank President Ajay Banga says he's determined to ensure that finance officials stay focused on longer-term challenges like creating jobs, connecting people to the electricity grid and ensuring access to clean water. — REUTERS

At current trajectories, those economies will generate only about 400 million jobs, leaving a deficit of 800 million jobs, Banga told Reuters.

The former Mastercard CEO admits that focusing people on the long-term is daunting, given a series of short-term shocks that have buffeted the global economy since the Covid-19 pandemic, the most recent being the war in the Middle East.

He says he’s determined to ensure that finance officials stay focused on those longer-term challenges like creating jobs, connecting people to the electricity grid and ensuring access to clean water. “We have to walk and chew gum at the same time. Short-velocity cycle is what we're going through. Longer velocity is this jobs circumstance or water,” Banga said in an interview.