World Bank’s Banga Warns of 800 Million Job Shortfall
Developing countries are on track to create far too few jobs for the 1.2 billion people set to reach working age over the next decade to decade-and-a-half, World Bank President Ajay Banga told Reuters in an interview ahead of the Spring Meetings
News
- Rockstar Games Hit by New Cyberattack With Limited Data Accessed
- Meta Seen Poised to Overtake Google in Digital Ad Race
- OpenAI Acquires Personal Finance Startup Hiro
- World Bank’s Banga Warns of 800 Million Job Shortfall
- Pirojsha Godrej to Lead Group as Succession Plan Takes Effect
- The Standard Opens Bengaluru Hub, eBay Deepens India Bet
World Bank President Ajay Banga has warned of a looming jobs crisis in developing countries, with 1.2 billion people set to reach working age over the next 10 to 15 years against an estimated 400 million jobs likely to be created.
The gap of about 800 million jobs, he suggested, has become harder to address as policymakers grapple with repeated shocks since the pandemic, most recently the war in the Middle East.
Banga, the former Mastercard chief executive, said finance officials gathering in Washington for the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group must stay focused on long-term priorities such as job creation, electricity access and clean water even as geopolitical turmoil clouds the near-term outlook.
“We have to walk and chew gum at the same time,” Banga told Reuters in an interview, describing the world as being caught in a “short-velocity cycle,” while the deeper challenge lay in jobs and water.
The 2026 Spring Meetings, running from 13 April to 18 April in Washington, have opened under the shadow of the Middle East conflict, which Reuters said threatens to weaken growth, lift inflation and intensify energy disruptions.
Banga said the World Bank’s Development Committee is working with developing countries to address policy and regulatory conditions that hold back investment and hiring.
He said the discussions would cover permit transparency, anti-corruption measures, labor and land laws, barriers to starting a business, logistics and non-price barriers to trade.
He also struck a note of guarded optimism, pointing to companies such as Reliance Industries Ltd, Mahindra Group and Nigeria’s Dangote Group as examples of businesses from developing economies already expanding globally.
Banga said the challenge was not to create a perfect outcome but to avoid the consequences of inaction.
“I don’t know that you can ever get to a situation of utopia and everybody is taken care of in the coming 15 years,” he told Reuters. “But if you don’t do it, the implications are quite severe in terms of illegal migration and instability.”
The warning comes as forced displacement remains at historically high levels. UNHCR said 123.2 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide at the end of 2024, while Reuters reported separately that the figure had risen to more than 122 million by April 2025.
