Irmgard Nübler is a senior economist in the Research Department of the International Labour Organisation in Geneva. Her current research program is focusing on structural transformation, technological change, and the impact on jobs, skills and the Future of Work, in both developing and developed countries. She manages research projects, undertakes technical work and provides policy advice to ILO constituents in the areas of productive transformation, industrial, education, training policies, and on developing social capabilities for productive transformation. In previous capacities in the ILO she worked in the areas of skills development, training systems, apprenticeship, and informal economy.
Before joining the ILO, she held a position as Professor of Economics at the Free University of Berlin for 13 years, teaching development economics and international trade. She conducted research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Nairobi and the International Institute for Labour Studies, ILO, Geneva, and worked as a consultant for various national and international development agencies. She received her PhD in Economics at the Free University of Berlin.
She has published widely in the areas of economic policy, globalization, technology, education, training, informal economy and human development. She is the co-editor of the book Transforming economies: Making industrial policies work for growth, jobs and development published , and she is author of the forthcoming book Capabilities for productive transformation: Shaping the Future of Work
