Since 2021, the ILO has called for human-centred and sustainable responses to
countermand ongoing structural changes across the world of work, including working
poverty, massed precarity and the burgeoning informal sector. Answering this call, we
propose the Wheel of Work, a conceptual classification framework made up of thirteen,
often interchangeable and intersecting metaphorical collars (Unfree Work, Clerical
Admin, Manufacturing, Skilled Trades, Service Care, Public Service, Green Work,
Armed Forces, Creative Arts, Extractive Industries, Transport Services, Robotic AI,
Elite Professional).These collars identify and classify, the types of work people do, and
where they do it. Encompassing sectors, industries, and livelihoods (defined as types of
work activities, professions, roles, occupations or jobs), the Wheel of Work
complements exisiting job and occupational classification systems.
Intending to mirror the dynamic realities in the world of work today, and through
geographical specificity, the Wheel of Work could more accurately reflect the types of
livelihoods undertaken in different countries and/or regions of the world. As we have
seen, often excluded from existing occupational, sector, and industry labour
classification standards are the 58% or 2 billion of the world's working population
employed in the informal economy. Informal work includes for example up to 90% of
micro and small enterprises (MSEs) worldwide (ILO, 2023). Flat-structured and
circular, with interchangeable and intersecting segments, the Wheel of Work includes
both the formal and informal sector, and each collar is of equal importance. The thirteen
collars can further be examined singly, or in tandem, in relation to human rights at
work, (in)decent work, issues of social protection, and social dialogue that supports
stable, fair, and sustainable labour markets. In short, it incorporates possibilities to
highlight measures that protect both people and the planet