According to the World Economic Forum’s data on “Regional Risks for Doing Business”, unemployment is the biggest concern for business executives globally. Fiscal crisis was previously the top concern, but that has moved down to third, with spread of infectious disease being the second biggest risk for businesses.
“The employment disruptions caused by the pandemic, rising automation and the transition to greener economies are fundamentally changing labour markets. As we emerge from the crisis, leaders have a remarkable opportunity to create new jobs, support living wages, and reimagine social safety nets to adequately meet the challenges in the labour markets of tomorrow”, says Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director at the World Economic Forum.
The WEF survey considers 30 risks, including terrorist attacks, extreme weather events and state collapse or crisis. While the top risks are mostly related to economics, climate-related risks are causing greater concern this year, with natural catastrophes (up seven places), extreme weather events (up five), biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse (up eight), and failure of climate-change adaptation (up two) featuring more prominently.
