ESG and Of Interest News
March 2026 Labor Market Update: How Women Have Closed the Other Workforce Gender Gap
March 26, 2026-The gap between male and female labor force participation has hit a record low-and it's still falling.
Key points:
In the early 1990s, men held almost 7 million more jobs than women. As of early 2026, that gap had entirely closed.
In recent months, male employment has contracted while female employment has held steady, suggesting the convergence is still accelerating.
The gender gap in labor force participation has been declining uninterrupted for decades, and hit its lowest recorded level in February 2026.
Our monthly Labor Market Update examines important trends using Indeed and other labor market data. Our US Labor Market Overview chartbook provides a more comprehensive view of the US labor market. Data from our Job Postings Index -which stood 2.2% above its pre-pandemic baseline as of March 20, 2026- and the Indeed Wage Tracker (including sector-level data) are regularly updated and can be accessed on our data portal.
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Source: hiringlab.org
Mapped: The World’s Riskiest Markets in 2026
March 26, 2026-While businesses are feeling the adverse impacts of nature loss, they are also beginning to recognise the opportunities a nature-positive economy can offer. From precision agriculture to battery recycling to bio-based materials, new ways of doing business are delivering both long-term resilience and short-term gains.
Not all markets offer the same tradeoff between risk and return.
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Source: visualcapitalist.com
AI investment and Middle East conflict shape outlook for global trade
March 20, 2026-The outlook for world trade in 2026 will be shaped by two powerful and opposite forces. On the one hand, the extraordinary momentum of investment in artificial intelligence (AI) continues to energize global demand for high-tech goods and digitally delivered services. On the other hand, the conflict in the Middle East -and the resulting spike in energy and transport costs - could weigh heavily on world trade and output.
The WTO Secretariat's latest Global Trade Outlook and Statistics 2026 captures this evolving picture, presenting the latest data for 2025 as well as new projections for 2026 and 2027. While trade proved more resilient than expected in 2025, some of the factors behind that resilience - such as frontloading of imports ahead of tariff hikes, and investment in AI-related infrastructure - are expected to be absent or reduced this year. This is expected to cause growth in global trade volume to slow in 2026 before it picks up in 2027.
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Source: WTO Blog
50 Investible Opportunities for a New Nature Economy
March 17, 2026-While businesses are feeling the adverse impacts of nature loss, they are also beginning to recognise the opportunities a nature-positive economy can offer. From precision agriculture to battery recycling to bio-based materials, new ways of doing business are delivering both long-term resilience and short-term gains.
Financial institutions are also realising the green economy can compete on returns. This report highlights 50+ investible opportunities already generating cost-savings or revenues for businesses across the real economy.
Corporate and finance leaders are transforming their operations because it makes good business sense to do so. In 2024, the green economy accounted for ˜$8 trillion in listed equity market value and has outperformed global equities by ~59% since 2008. Yet the private sector still invests ˜$5 trillion annually in activities that harm nature, despite research showing more than half global GDP depends on the services nature provides.
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Source: World Economic Forum (WEF)
Energy Charted: The Energy Mix of the World's 10 Largest Economies
March 13, 2026-Key Takeaways
Oil is the largest energy source in six of the world's 10 biggest economies, including the U.S., Germany, Japan, the UK, and Italy.
Coal dominates energy supply in China and India, accounting for nearly 60% of their energy mixes.
France stands out for nuclear power, which provides over 46% of its energy mix, the highest share among the group.
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Source: visualcapitalist.com
OECD: Women in research: Progress in education, persistent gaps in careers
March 10, 2026-Women now make up a majority of master's and doctoral graduates across OECD countries, yet they remain underrepresented across research and development (R&D) activities, particularly in the business sector. Despite substantial policy efforts, OECD analysis shows persistent gaps between men and women in research career pathways, employment conditions and international mobility.
The gap between male and female researchers is widest in business R&D
Every March, International Women's Day invites reflection on progress towards strengthening women's participation in education, employment and society more broadly. In research and development (R&D) careers, the story remains a complex one.
In most OECD economies, business enterprises perform the majority of R&D. Yet women remain markedly underrepresented in this sector. On average, they account for only around one-quarter of researchers in business R&D, a share that has changed little over the past two decades.
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Source: OECD
Jobs and Skills for the Blue Economy
April 10, 2026- The transition to a low-carbon and nature-positive economy is not just about technologies and targets. It is about people and their livelihoods. It will reshape labor markets around the world.
As economies decarbonize and invest in adaptation, the transition could create hundreds of millions of jobs globally over the coming decade. For ocean-centric sectors alone, including fisheries and aquaculture, offshore wind and marine and coastal tourism, this could amount to 93 million additional jobs globally by 2050.
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Source: worldbank.org
ICYMI: Report Shows 'Annoyance Economy' Rips Off Consumers for $165 Billion Annually
March 4, 2026--Spam and robocalls cost Americans over $32 billion annually, junk fees cost consumers $90 billion annually, and health care headaches cost $41 billion.
Groundwork Collaborative recently published Taking on the Annoyance Economy, which totals the cost of the Annoyance Economy at $165 billion in wasted time and effort.
Groundwork Policy Fellow Chad Maisel and Stanford economist Neale Mahoney find that tactics such as obstructing cancellations can raise corporate profits by up to 200%.
The annoyances are increasingly inescapable: Americans receive more than 130 million scam and illegal marketing calls each day, and over 20 billion spam texts each month. By draining money, time, and energy, the Annoyance Economy amplifies the cost of daily life and hits families hardest who are already stretched thin. As Americans face an affordability crisis, the Trump administration has let the "Annoyance Economy" flourish scrapping airline refund rules, repealing CFPB overdraft protections, and cutting enforcement against scams and abusive practices.
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Source: groundworkcollaborative.org
Ranked: The World's Richest Countries vs. the Happiest Countries
February 27, 2026--Several Nordic countries rank among both the richest and happiest in the world.
Some ultra-wealthy nations, including Singapore and Qatar, do not make the top 20 for happiness.
Only a handful of countries appear near the top of both rankings.
Does money buy happiness?
The world.s richest countries generate staggering income per person. But when it comes to life satisfaction, some of the wealthiest nations fall surprisingly short.
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Source: visualcapitalist.com
WFE Accessing Transition Finance-A Practical Guide for Issuers
February 26, 2026--Transition finance that enables the economy and finance to move towards Net Zero and other sustainability-related goals is a significant opportunity for businesses and investors.
Global climate finance, which supports activities that are already green, reached $1.9 tr in 2023 and is estimated to have exceeded $2 tr in 2024.
These figures constitute a mere fraction of the investment needed to bring along the rest of the world - i.e. those parts of the economy that are not already 'green'-and stay on a pathway to achieving Net Zero by 2050. As a result, there is a significant funding gap, estimated to range from $4.5 tr to $7.8 tr annually based on current spending. As net-zero deadlines approach and decarbonisation urgency intensifies (especially for 'hard-to-abate' sectors), a growing share of sustainable capital is expected to be directed towards transition finance.
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Source: world-exchanges.org
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