With more than 200 million people unemployed globally and trends indicating further disruptions to the labour market, unemployment is one of the most significant societal challenges of the 21st century. Youth in particular are deeply affected by the crisis. The results of this wasted talent are already felt in the form of rising social tensions, with fears of growing violence, extremism and upheaval. Paradoxically, many positions remain vacant and employers report difficulties in finding the talent they need, pointing to a growing skills mismatch impeding growth. 

Tackling this challenge needs the concerted efforts of all stakeholders in society. While governments must create the enabling environment that promotes inclusive growth and employment, facilitates quality education and skills development and provides safety nets for those that are marginalized, it is critical that business, civil society and the education and training sector are also engaged in identifying and implementing solutions. Most importantly, partnerships between different sectors will be an indispensable component of finding solutions to the present crisis and leveraging the opportunities available in this period of change. 

The World Economic Forum’s Global Initiative on Employment, Skills and Human Capital seeks to understand the underlying causes of unemployment and the skills gap, anticipate future trends and disruptions in labour markets, identify successful practices and engage multiple stakeholders in deploying solutions. The Disrupting Unemployment report consolidates information on business-led partnerships for addressing skills gaps, fostering entrepreneurship and facilitating the talent market. This initial edition of the Report is a compendium of 60 successful case studies and an overarching framework – or toolkit – that outlines the key interventions gleaned from the case studies. It is intended as a user-friendly and “living” document, which we will enhance as solutions continue to emerge. We hope that the availability of this knowledge through one portal will encourage stakeholders, on their own or in partnership, to emulate some of these proven practices and thus accelerate the pace of change in addressing this important challenge. 

We would like to express our deep appreciation to Muhtar Kent, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman at The Coca-Cola Company, for pioneering this project as Chair of the International Business Council (2013-2014), as well as the entire International Business Council for their invaluable guidance and transparent sharing of practices and experiences. We are also thankful to our partners at Mercer, especially Patricia A. Milligan, President, North America Region, and Richard A. Guzzo, Partner and Co-Leader, Workforce Sciences Institute, for their contributions to this Report. We would like to express our appreciation to the project team, especially Kristin Keveloh, Senior Manager, Employment, Skills and Human Capital at the Forum, and Anne Hetterich, Associate at Mercer. We are also grateful for the support of Till Leopold, Valérie Peyre, Yasmina Bekhouche, Jessica Camus and Pearl Samandari. 

It is our hope that this Report will serve as a call to action to more stakeholders to join the momentum towards solutions for an issue that is critical to our future. Ultimately, it is through collective actions that change can occur and that unemployment will be disrupted. We call upon every reader of this Report to join these efforts.