Global Labour Resilience Index (GLRI)
What is Global Labour Resilience Index (GLRI)?
Global Labour Resilience Index (GLRI) 2026 (PDF, 1 MB) captures how countries’ labour markets absorb, adapt and transform in a new landscape where disruption is the norm and where AI is reshaping production systems, skills requirements and employment models. It evaluates long-term structural fundamentals as well as the agility of policies, institutions, skills systems, and the business and innovation environment amid rapid technological changes and geopolitical uncertainties.
Methodology
The GLRI encompasses both fundamental and disruption-focused aspects of resilience. GLRI 2026 is a hierarchical composite index that distinguishes between two key components of resilience - structural and cyclical - each represented by its respective sub-index (mentioned in the tables below). While the structural sub-index focuses on the fundamental, long-lasting characteristics that underpin a country’s overall capacity for labour resilience, the cyclical sub-index measures how effectively a country’s labour market can respond to disruptions - both immediate shocks and longer-term changes driven by evolving technologies like AI.
The UAE’s rank in GLRI 2026 report
The UAE was ranked 26th globally and 2nd in the MENA region in GLRI 2026. The UAE’s rank and score in the sub-indices and their pillars is as follows:
Overall rank and score in the sub-indices (Table 1 in the report)
|
Category |
Rank/score |
|
GLRI rank (overall) |
26 |
|
GLRI score (out of 100) |
62.74 |
|
Structural rank (overall) |
29 |
|
Structural score (out of 100) |
72.09 |
|
Cyclical rank (overall) |
25 |
|
Cyclical score (out of100) |
58.06 |
|
Cyclical traditional rank (overall) |
33 |
|
Cyclical traditional score (out of 100) |
55.75 |
|
Cyclical AI rank (overall) |
13 |
|
Cyclical AI score (out of 100) |
62.68 |
Rank in the Structural sub-index and related pillars (Table 3 in the report)
|
Category |
Rank/score |
|
Demographics rank (overall) |
2 |
|
Demographics score (out of 100) |
99.68 |
|
Economic development and macroeconomic stability rank (overall) |
29 |
|
Economic development and macroeconomic stability score (out of 100) |
74.80 |
|
Trade vulnerability rank (overall) |
61 |
|
Trade vulnerability score (out of 100) |
58.97 |
|
Institutional capacity rank (overall) |
45 |
|
Institutional capacity score (out of 100) |
68.71 |
Rank in the Cyclical Traditional dimension and related pillars (Table 4 in the report)
|
Category |
Rank/score |
|
Absorptive Capacity Traditional rank (overall) |
69 |
|
Absorptive Capacity Traditional score (out of 100) |
51.82 |
|
Adaptive Capacity Traditional rank (overall) |
21 |
|
Adaptive Capacity Traditional score (out of 100) |
59.91 |
|
Transformative Capacity Traditional rank (overall) |
30 |
|
Transformative Capacity Traditional score (out of 100) |
55.51 |
Rank in the Cyclical AI dimension and related pillars (Table 5 in the report)
|
Category |
Rank/score |
|
Absorptive Capacity AI rank (overall) |
8 |
|
Absorptive Capacity AI score (out of 100) |
79.90 |
|
Adaptive Capacity AI rank (overall) |
27 |
|
Adaptive Capacity AI score (out of 100) |
51.66 |
|
Transformative Capacity AI rank (overall) |
14 |
|
Transformative Capacity AI score (out of 100) |
56.48 |
The UAE in the GLRI 2026
GLRI 2026 refers to the UAE in the following context:
- Thirteen countries register notable upward movement, including the United Arab Emirates, Korea, Morocco, Georgia, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. Their improvement trajectories confirm that resilience gains do not stem from a single policy lever or development pathway. Rather, they emerge from coordinated progress across skills systems, digital readiness, labour participation, and institutional effectiveness.
- GLRI analysis links this progress to advances in cybersecurity, AI adoption, digital skills, and the business environment, which together enhance the labour market’s capacity to adjust to rapid technological change.
These developments predominantly strengthen adaptive capacity by enabling faster reallocation of workers and firms toward emerging opportunities, while also supporting longer-term transformation through improved digital readiness. Structural characteristics related to demographics and trade exposure continue to shape baseline resilience, but recent gains underscore the role of coordinated policy action and technology diffusion in improving labour-market performance.
Policy lesson: Coordinated advances in digital security, skills, business environment, and AI adoption can deliver tangible labour-resilience gains within a relatively short policy horizon.
Source: Whiteshield, Global Labour Resilience Index 2026
- The GLRI 2026 comparison with the 2025 edition shows clear shifts in countries’ resilience performance. A group of “winners,” including the UAE, Korea, Morocco, Georgia, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan, move notably upward due to stronger cybersecurity, faster AI adoption, improved digital skills, and higher labour participation. These advances enhance their ability to absorb shocks, adapt to technological change, and diversify opportunities.
Updated on:
16 Jul 2026
