Employment creation

Learn about the complexities of today’s labor market, with a focus on key structural trends and solutions to tackle deeper challenges and foster meaningful change.

• Looking past complexity
  
  While the challenges of our time can seem (and often are) overwhelmingly complex, there are some clear underlying trends, commonalities, and lessons that we can draw on. The need for structural transformation, among others, often takes centre stage.
• Labour is more than just a ‘cost of production’
  
  From the employer’s perspective, labour is a cost factor. However, this is not the same at the macroeconomic/societal level, and this opens up quite different perspectives.
• Skills on their own do not create jobs
  
  It is tempting to reduce the labour market challenges of the day to issues of skills, and terms like reskilling, upskilling, and cross-skilling are ubiquitous. But this focus on skills often creates a blind spot for other often more important aspects.
• Structural problems need structural solutions
  
  Many of the labour market challenges observed and described originate from deeply structural reasons. Thus, if we want to have any chance of solving them, we also need to look for structural solutions.

This Keynote highlights the central role of jobs and employment in navigating today’s transformative shifts. It explores how productive, decent work provides stability for individuals and families, strengthens economic resilience, and fosters a sense of purpose. To fully leverage this stabilizing power, the focus must be on creating more and better jobs through meaningful structural transformation.

This Keynote is ideal for business leaders, HR professionals, policymakers, and educators seeking insights into the centrality of jobs and employment, current labour market dynamics, and how we can promote the creation of more and better jobs in a rapidly changing world.

Bernd Mueller, from Germany, is an expert in employment promotion, economic development, and rural livelihoods in Eastern and Southern Africa. He specialises in policy development, project design, and programme advice on rural employment, youth and women's employment, and international labour standards. With extensive experience in advanced socio-economic research, he conducts value chain, employment, and household surveys in developing countries.

Education

He holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Economics from SOAS University of London and an MSc in Economics from the University of Münster.

Experience

Bernd is the Manager of the Employment Policy and Analysis Programme (EPAP) at ITCILO, leading a team to provide capacity development support through training and advisory services on a wide range of topics, including employment promotion, job creation, economic policies, skills development, labour market statistics, information systems, and informality. His team's services cater to stakeholders at national, regional, and global levels. His other experiences include serving as a Senior Employment Specialist at the International Labour Organization in South Africa, and as a Rural Employment Specialist at FAO, focusing on job creation in Ethiopia.

Booking a keynote is simple. Fill out the booking form with your details and our team will get in touch with you via email to confirm the next steps. We’re here to help tailor the session to your needs and ensure a smooth process from booking to delivery of the Keynote.