From guessing to knowing with JANZZilms!: Academic overqualification is one of the main drivers of the intensifying global worker shortage.

Many countries worldwide, especially in emerging labor markets in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America, are facing growing labor market challenges. More and more overqualified workers with academic backgrounds struggle to find work in their field. On the other hand, there is a shortage of skilled workers with technical or vocational backgrounds, leaving many jobs unfilled. Both are costly symptoms of an ever-increasing skills mismatch worldwide.

This trend is a result of several factors. One of the main drivers is the cultural emphasis placed on higher education. For many years, there has been a widespread belief that a university degree is the key to success and financial stability. As a result, many people pursue higher education, often at great expense, hoping to improve their employability and job prospects. However, the labor markets are constantly evolving. Many employers are now filling roles that once required a university degree with workers from technical or vocational backgrounds. Advances in technology and automation have further fueled this shift by redefining many traditional jobs and creating new positions that require highly specialized skills. The shortage of workers with technical or vocational backgrounds is a serious problem for many industries, particularly in construction, craft trades, manufacturing, transportation, and the health and care sectors. These industries require an ever-increasing number of workers with specialized skills that can often only be acquired through experience or training rather than by higher education alone.

Many countries have begun investing in technical and vocational education and training to address this challenge. These investments include funding programs to train students in technical skills, from carpentry and plumbing to computer programming and robotics. But in far too many cases, governments, policymakers, and industries are still too hesitant, programming is piecemeal, and funding is scant. This must change as quickly as possible if we want to alleviate the looming worldwide system-critical shortage in these professions before it is too late.

Overall, the challenge of overqualified workers and a shortage of workers with technical or vocational backgrounds is a complex problem that requires a multifaceted solution. By investing in future-proof, high-quality education and training and reevaluating the cultural emphasis placed on higher education, we all can help ensure that workers improve their employability, thus gaining access to fulfilling careers and contributing to our economy’s continued growth and success.

JANZZilms!, our intelligent integrated real-time labor market management system, pinpoints and quantifies precisely these types of facts at every possible level of granularity. Providing the insights and factual basis needed to initiate, monitor, and continuously improve appropriate action for truly intelligent labor market management.

JANZZilms! – from guessing to knowing.