If unemployment is low, why are hospitals still short of caregivers and restaurants desperate for qualified staff? Read Chapter 2 of our white paper to understand why today’s historically low unemployment rates can backfire—deepening, not easing, the shortage of skilled workers.
- Switzerland faces a projected shortfall of up to 400,000 workers over the next decade.
- Germany will need nearly 290,000 skilled migrants each year until 2040 just to meet demand for nurses, electricians, and plumbers.
After COVID-19, unemployment rates snapped back to pre-pandemic levels—but job openings hit record highs. This exposes a widening gap between the supply of workers and the demand for skills. In Chapter 1 of our white paper, we have explored how aging populations, falling birth rates, changing attitudes toward work, and overeducation have aggravated the global labor market mismatch.
In Chapter 2 of our white paper, we now introduce a set of metrics that reveal the real dynamics behind the headlines. Solving the skills mismatch—our focus in upcoming Chapter 3—requires first understanding the forces at play:
- Worker mobility and migration
- Wages, work quality, and employment participation rates
- Education and skills pipelines
- Technology, automation, and shifting employer requirements
- Productivity and new technologies
The data is there—if you know where to look.
The world is facing a global challenge with local consequences. In developing countries, only one in five young adults holds a stable, paid job whereas in high-income nations, essential sectors face acute labor shortages. Employers struggle to recruit workers for manual roles because many young people, guided by family expectations, pursue academic paths only to crowd into a small set of popular jobs.
What labor shortages are you seeing in your industry? We asked industry leader The Stepstone Group CEO Sebastian Dettmers the most pressing questions, continuing our high profile interview series.
You can order this new chapter—and the first one—of our white paper here.
At JANZZ, we use AI and big data to forecast future skills shortages. Our Labor Market Mismatch Index™ pinpoints imbalances between supply and demand and helps organizations match workers with the right roles—all fully ISO 27001 certified and GDPR/CCPA compliant.
