ILO future of work: the 2019 agenda and the 2026 platform Convention

Three kinds of document get called “the ILO’s future of work report”. One is a commission report, another is a set of working papers on artificial intelligence, and the third is a legal text. They do different jobs, and mixing them up is how a recommendation gets quoted as a rule. This page separates them, starts with the agenda that frames the rest, and ends with what the newest document actually obliges governments to do. The wider set of policy questions sits in the policy section.

What is the ILO’s future of work report?

The best-known document is Work for a brighter future, the 2019 report of the Global Commission on the Future of Work¹. It frames the ILO’s role against its origin: governments, employers and workers came together in 1919 to found the organization out of a shared commitment to social justice¹. The Commission’s starting claim is that technology will create new jobs, but that those who lose their jobs in the transition may be the least equipped to seize the new opportunities¹. It adds that today’s skills will not match the jobs of tomorrow, and that newly acquired skills may quickly become obsolete¹.

The report sets its warnings against a baseline of existing problems, summarized here.

The Commission also records that the share of national income going to workers has declined¹. That is the background to its call to reinvigorate the social contract that gives working people a just share of economic progress¹.

The human-centred agenda: three pillars

The Commission proposes a human-centred agenda that strengthens the social contract by placing people and the work they do at the centre of economic and social policy and business practice¹. The agenda consists of three pillars of action¹.

Two proposals in the second pillar carry most of what came later. The first is the Universal Labour Guarantee: all workers, regardless of their contractual arrangement or employment status, should enjoy fundamental workers’ rights, an “adequate living wage”, maximum limits on working hours and protection of safety and health at work¹. The second is a “human-in-command” approach to artificial intelligence, so that the final decisions affecting work are taken by human beings¹. The report adds that an international governance system for digital labour platforms should require platforms and their clients to respect certain minimum rights and protections, and that technology demands regulation of data use and algorithmic accountability¹. Those two sentences are the seed of the 2026 Convention described below².

On delivery, the Commission calls for countries to set national strategies on the future of work through social dialogue between governments and workers’ and employers’ organizations¹. It also recommends that all relevant multilateral institutions strengthen their joint work on the agenda¹.

What the Commission said about technology and jobs

The 2019 report sets out estimates from other studies in a table, and the spread is wide¹.

The same table lists demography. By 2050, the total dependency ratio is projected to increase sharply in Europe (by 24.8 percentage points) and Northern America (by 14.4 percentage points), while for Africa it is projected to decrease by 18.7 percentage points¹. Ageing regions and young regions face opposite pressures. For how these studies compare and why they disagree, see how many jobs automation will replace.

Skills and lifelong learning: ILO, employers and the GTCI

The skills proposal in the 2019 agenda is specific: a universal entitlement to lifelong learning that enables people to acquire skills and to reskill and upskill¹. Employers surveyed by the World Economic Forum for its Future of Jobs Report 2025 point the same way. 85% of employers surveyed plan to prioritize upskilling their workforce, and they name funding for reskilling and upskilling (55%) and provision of reskilling and upskilling (52%) as the two most crucial public policy measures⁶. The WEF page on skills and jobs sets out the detail by edition.

The Global Talent Competitiveness Index reaches the same issue from the country side. Its 2020 edition, on artificial intelligence, concluded that the emergence of AI in the workplace requires a massive re-skilling of the workforce⁷. Its 2017 edition added an Employability sub-pillar that measures the extent of skill gaps and labor market mismatches in each country⁸. The measurement view and the entitlement view are two ends of one argument: the index scores what a country does about skills, and the ILO proposes what it should guarantee. For the mismatch evidence itself, see skills mismatch.

What the ILO has added since 2019

Two later items matter for readers tracking technology.

The first is a 2025 ILO working paper on generative AI, whose revised index puts one in four workers globally in an occupation with some generative AI exposure, and 3.3% of global employment in the highest exposure category⁵. Exposure is higher in rich countries: 34% of total employment in the high-income group and 11% in the low-income group⁵. The paper stresses that exposure does not imply the immediate automation of an entire occupation, but rather the potential for a large share of its current tasks to be performed using this technology⁵. For most occupations, transformation is the most likely impact, because most occupations consist of tasks that require human input⁵.

The second is the speech that opened the 114th International Labour Conference in Geneva in June 2026. The Director-General opened the Conference with a call to place people at the centre of the artificial intelligence revolution³. His line: the future of work will not be determined by technology alone, but by the policies, institutions and social dialogue that guide it³. He called for a human-centred approach to AI and a strategic agenda built around four pillars: rights, employment and skills, social protection and social dialogue³. Productivity gains, in his words, must be distributed fairly through better wages, stronger labour protections and more inclusive growth³. The Conference brings worker, employer and government delegates from the Organization’s 187 Member States³.

Convention No. 193: what the platform-work standard requires

On 12 June 2026, at its 114th session in Geneva, the International Labour Conference adopted the Decent Work in the Platform Economy Convention, 2026, which is Convention No. 193². It received 406 votes in favour, 8 against and 36 abstentions, as ILO News reported⁴. It is the first international labour standard specifically designed to address working conditions in the digital platform economy⁴. It responds to the rapid growth of digital labour platforms and of the workers who earn their livelihoods through platform work, including ride-hailing, delivery and online freelance services⁴. If adopted, the standards would be the first focused on the impact of digitalization in the world of work³.

Worked example (our arithmetic). The vote in plain shares, using the three figures reported⁴.

Who and what it covers

The Convention defines a digital platform worker as a person employed or engaged to work for the provision of service organized or facilitated by a digital labour platform, for remuneration or payment, regardless of their classification of status in employment². It applies to all digital labour platforms and to all digital platform workers, whether in the formal or informal economy². A Member may exclude limited categories of platforms or workers from all or part of it, after consulting representative organizations of employers and workers, and must give the reasons for the exclusions in its reports².

The main obligations

Two provisions answer the Commission’s call for human control. Where decisions are generated by an automated decision-making system, each Member must ensure that platforms have appropriate human involvement². And the terms of engagement should preferably be governed by the laws of the country where the work is performed, unless national laws or international agreements provide otherwise². The Convention also asks governments to promote decent work and to encourage career and skills development in the platform economy², and to facilitate formalization, including registration of self-employed workers².

What the Convention does not do yet

A convention binds only the Members whose ratifications have been registered with the Director-General². It comes into force twelve months after the ratifications of two Members have been registered, and for any other Member twelve months after its own ratification is registered². Each Member implements it in consultation with the most representative organizations of employers and workers². Adoption alone therefore changes no national rule. For ratification status, check the ILO’s own register of ratifications, which this page does not track.

Which ILO document answers which question

• What should governments aim for? The 2019 report and its three pillars¹.
• How exposed are jobs to generative AI? The 2025 working paper, read as exposure, not loss⁵.
• What must platforms and states actually do? Only the adopted text of Convention No. 193, and only for states that ratify it².
• How do countries compare on talent and skills? Not the ILO: the GTCI methodology explains the index that measures it.