“The World Economic Forum’s Outlook on the Global Agenda 2015  features an analysis of the Top 10 trends which will preoccupy our experts for the next 12-18 months as well as the key challenges facing the world’s regions, an overview of global leadership and governance, and the emerging issues that will define our future.” Deepening income inequality and persistent jobless growth are ranked number one and two, respectively. Income inequality is “one of the most visible aspects of a broader and more complex issue, one that entails inequality of opportunity and extends to gender, ethnicity, disability, and age, among others. In developed and developing countries alike, the poorest half of the population often controls less than 10% of its wealth.”

“While it is true that around the world economic growth is picking up pace, deep challenges remain, including poverty, environmental degradation, persistent unemployment, political instability, violence and conflict. These problems, which are reflected in many parts of this report, are often closely related to inequality.”

When it comes to persistent jobless growth, “the phenomenon in which economies exiting recessions demonstrate economic growth while merely maintaining – or, in some cases, decreasing – their level of employment, … the percentage of those [between the ages of 25-54] who are not working has risen by a factor of more than three over the course of [several years], and that trend seems inexorably upward. If current trends continue, it could well be that a generation from now a quarter of the middle-aged demographic will be out of work at any given moment.”