Employment-intensive public investments can help address the global care crisis and create millions of decent jobs, according to a new brief from the International Labour Organization (ILO).
The study, Employment-intensive investments for advancing decent work in the care economy, the second instalment of the ILO Care Economy Brief series, outlines how integrating care considerations into public investment projects can generate up to 280 million jobs by 2030 and 299 million by 2035. Nearly four-fifths of these posts would be held by women.
"Infrastructure spending should not only build roads and bridges; it can also build brighter futures through decent jobs," said Mito Tsukamoto, Chief of the ILO Employment in Investments (EMPINVEST) Branch, responsible for the Employment-Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP). "Investing in childcare centres, community health hubs and family-friendly worksites, helps tackle labour shortages, expand women's employment and strengthen local resilience in one stroke."
The brief recommends three strategies:
- Supporting workers with care responsibilities through measures such as paid leave, flexible schedules and onsite childcare.
- Developing care infrastructure - from nurseries to long-term care facilities, using labour-based methods that prioritise local employment.
- Including care as a sector of work within EIIP, professionalising previously unpaid or informal care roles and ensuring fair wages and social protection.
ILO estimates show that every US $1 invested in closing childcare policy gaps could yield US $3.76 in global GDP by 2035, while boosting women's employment rate by more than ten percentage points.
The brief also shows how the Employment-Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP) supports Public Employment Programmes (PEPs), promotes job-rich development-including green projects-and helps respond to and prevent crises.
The study presents pilot projects in Jordan, Sudan and Madagascar where EIIP initiatives combined road rehabilitation with the construction of nurseries, upgrades to health posts and the creation of safe community parks- The EIIP project in Jordan, for example, has generated over 155,000 paid work-days-34 per cent of them undertaken by women and 5 per cent by persons with disabilities.
It also describes how Public Employment Programmes in South Africa, Argentina and Rwanda have fully integrated care services into their employment-intensive activities. By addressing locally identified needs, these programmes have become significantly more gender-responsive.
Chidi King, Director of the ILO Gender, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Branch (GEDI), emphasized: "Embedding the ILO's 5R Framework - recognition, reduction, redistribution of unpaid care, and reward and representation of care workers in employment-intensive investments will help to close gender gaps, provide positive labour market outcomes for women and decent work for workers in Employment Intensive Investments."
The ILO encourages governments, development banks and social partners to include care services in infrastructure planning, apply labour-based approaches that support local employment, and ensure that new care roles align with international labour standards.
The brief is available in English, French and Spanish on the ILO website.
