The Global Labour Force to 2030. A Summary of Futuribles International's Vigie 2008 Report

Each year, as part of its system of mutualized monitoring, the “Futuribles International” Association publishes a report surveying long-term and emerging trends in the strategic environment of enterprises and organizations over the next 10 to 20 years. The report serves as a complement to the association’s work carried out over the year. Published in late November 2008, the subject of the Vigie 2008 Report was the global labour force in the years to 2030.
Céline Laisney, who co-directed the production of the 2008 report, presents an outline of it here, the full document being reserved for the members and partners of the Vigie system. She recalls firstly the main hypotheses, trends and uncertainties identified in the various fields covered by the report – tracking of the working-age population, labour migrations, workers’ skills, labour cost differentials, labour legislation, social welfare and workers’ health – which served as a basis for developing the microscenarios. She then outlines the four major scenarios, built up by Futuribles out of these microscenarios, with regard to the global workforce in the years to 2030. These include a trend scenario (“human development as a flight of wild geese”), a “dual labour-market” scenario (a “flattening” of the world and increased inequality), a scenario in which human capital becomes the main concern of states as part of a fallback to protectionism, and, lastly, a more virtuous scenario in which citizen enterprise predominates.