Global status in 2025
The UN Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025 finds that half of the monitored SDG 8 targets have stagnated or declined. By 2024, 57.8 per cent of the global workforce was in informal employment — without adequate social protection, legal protection or workplace safety — and youth unemployment, at 12.9 per cent, remains roughly triple the adult rate of 3.7 per cent.
Source: United Nations, The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025.
European and Albanian context
SDG 8 is the goal most directly constitutive of NOVARIC®'s business. Cross-border recruitment sits at the intersection of target 8.7 (eradication of forced labour), target 8.8 (protection of labour rights, particularly for migrant workers) and target 8.5 (decent work for all). The conduct of the recruiter determines whether mobility delivers decent work or facilitates exploitation.
NOVARIC® implementation commitments
- Enforce the employer-pays principle absolutely: no recruitment fees or related costs are ever charged to candidates.
- Apply a decent-work quality gate to every placement, covering contract terms, wages, hours, safety and social protection.
- Maintain modern-slavery vigilance across the supply chain, aligned with the ILO Fair Recruitment Initiative and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
- Provide written terms to every candidate in a language they understand before any commitment is made.
- Operate licensed employment-agency activity (licence X.2.A) under full regulatory compliance in Albania and Malta.
Key performance indicators
Measured through the Manual's 90-indicator register (browse the full register):
- SOC-01 Fee-free placement rate (100% target)
- SOC-05 Quality-gate pass rate
- SOC-08 Contract transparency coverage
- RSK-02 Modern-slavery risk assessments completed
The decent-work quality gate is a documented, non-waivable control: every placement file must evidence lawful contract terms, verified wages, compliant working hours, safety arrangements and social-protection coverage before approval. Files that cannot evidence every criterion are rejected, and the decision is recorded.