Matching Skills and Labour Market Needs: Building Social Partnerships for Better Skills and Better Jobs

Skills are critical assets for individuals, businesses and societies. Matching skills and jobs has become a high-priority policy concern, as mismatches, occurring when workers have either fewer or more skills than jobs require, may result in an underutilisation of existing human capital and result in job vacancies not being filled in. Since the global economic crisis, skills mismatch has become more prominent and many employers report difficulties in finding suitably skilled workers, even in economies with high levels of employment. In this context, this Report produced by the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda on Employment presents a set of policy recommendations to enhance the skills matching to labour market needs by building social partnerships.