While we hear a lot about unemployment rates and how tough it has been to find a job since the 'Great Recession', our current global jobs crisis is a little more complicated than that.
Almost 200 million people around the world are unemployed. Seventy five million of these unemployed are youth. Yet global businesses are struggling to find enough skilled workers to fill job vacancies. The inability to fill jobs despite massive unemployment is not only due to geographic imbalances in demand and supply, but also due to large skill gaps between the needs of the industry and the output of the education systems.
This ends up having long term detrimental effects on economies, both at the micro and macro levels. According to Career Builder, "When businesses lack the necessary skilled workers, they suffer from less effective business performance, lower quality work, lower morale, and higher employee turnover." This in turn leads to productivity and revenue losses, as well as a hindered ability to expand into other markets. Unemployed workers find themselves in an increasingly dire position, as their time out of the workforce means falling behind in industry changes, putting them at a further disadvantage in a competitive workforce, even if they have completed extra education.
In a report released by the O.E.C.D. in October 2013, the organization found that advanced economies are generating very few jobs for workers with middling skills. While many countries are aware of the issue and taking steps to address it, the report calls out the United States for its inaction on building skill sets and for an education system that is failing workers. “Unless there is a significant change of direction,” the report notes, “the work force skills of other O.E.C.D. countries will overtake those of the U.S. just at the moment when all O.E.C.D. countries will be facing (and indeed are already facing) major and fast-increasing competitive challenges from emerging economies.”
Which countries is this skills gap affecting the most? Career Builder created an infographic showing the effects across the world's ten largest economies.
Infographic by CareerBuilder. Source: Visually.
Follow the Diplomatic Courier's discussion on the future of work on Twitter and Facebook at #2050jobs.
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Skills Gaps Holding Back the Global Economy [Infographic]
January 6, 2014
While we hear a lot about unemployment rates and how tough it has been to find a job since the 'Great Recession', our current global jobs crisis is a little more complicated than that.
Almost 200 million people around the world are unemployed. Seventy five million of these unemployed are youth. Yet global businesses are struggling to find enough skilled workers to fill job vacancies. The inability to fill jobs despite massive unemployment is not only due to geographic imbalances in demand and supply, but also due to large skill gaps between the needs of the industry and the output of the education systems.
This ends up having long term detrimental effects on economies, both at the micro and macro levels. According to Career Builder, "When businesses lack the necessary skilled workers, they suffer from less effective business performance, lower quality work, lower morale, and higher employee turnover." This in turn leads to productivity and revenue losses, as well as a hindered ability to expand into other markets. Unemployed workers find themselves in an increasingly dire position, as their time out of the workforce means falling behind in industry changes, putting them at a further disadvantage in a competitive workforce, even if they have completed extra education.
In a report released by the O.E.C.D. in October 2013, the organization found that advanced economies are generating very few jobs for workers with middling skills. While many countries are aware of the issue and taking steps to address it, the report calls out the United States for its inaction on building skill sets and for an education system that is failing workers. “Unless there is a significant change of direction,” the report notes, “the work force skills of other O.E.C.D. countries will overtake those of the U.S. just at the moment when all O.E.C.D. countries will be facing (and indeed are already facing) major and fast-increasing competitive challenges from emerging economies.”
Which countries is this skills gap affecting the most? Career Builder created an infographic showing the effects across the world's ten largest economies.
Infographic by CareerBuilder. Source: Visually.
Follow the Diplomatic Courier's discussion on the future of work on Twitter and Facebook at #2050jobs.
