The Global Fight for Employment

The Global Fight for Employment

The global labour landscape is rapidly changing. Emerging markets are fast becoming viable competitors to developed economies, due to improving education standards and business environments. At the same time, the use of automation and robotics are on the increase, all resulting in a highly competitive global labour market. Paradoxically, many markets struggle to fill skills shortages in sought-after fields of employment.

Not enough jobs to go around

At a global level, there is more competition than ever before for jobs. A key reason is the booming global population. The working-age population aged 15-64 has grown faster than the global employed population every year since 2006.

Competition from emerging markets

Education standards are on the rise in emerging countries, making their employees more competitive. Many emerging markets are shifting away from primary industries, such as agriculture and mining, towards tertiary industries, such as public services and financial intermediation. This rise in employment in service industries is increasingly bringing employees in developing countries directly into competition with workers in developed nations.

Emerging Business Environments Improving

It is no longer always the case that developed markets business environments are more accessible than their emerging counterparts. Many developing countries have made strong inroads to improving their rankings for key business environment indicators, such as the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business and the Corruption Perceptions Index.

Automation Threatens Global Workforce

The use of technology and robotics to replace human labour (automation) is a growing trend. Automation can be positive for economies, as it can boost labour productivity, but it can also contribute to long-term "structural" unemployment, where the skills of an economy's population is mismatched with the skills the country requires. Automation use is predicted to continue to grow dramatically from 2014 to 2018 across all regions.

Global Skills Mismatch

As the global employment playing field is becoming more level, skills shortages are becoming an increasing problem for many countries. Emerging regions have the biggest issues with "brain drain" or loss of talent. Three of the bottom five ranked countries globally for their ability to attract talent are in Eastern Europe. Some of the reasons for this include the shift of manufacturing work to Asia, closure of mines, unequal geographical distribution of job opportunities and overly rigid labour laws that discourage employers from hiring.