Search

Using random H-1B visa lotteries as a natural experiment, we find that firms respond to shortages of high-skilled workers by acquiring firms that employ such workers. The effect is stronger among firms with high human capital and more senior workforces, firms facing tight labor markets and legal barriers to poaching workers, and firms lacking foreign affiliates. The acquired workers are highly educated, sharing skills and occupations similar to those of the acquirer's existing workers. Our findings suggest skilled labor is an important driver of acquisitions and acquiring is an effective means of obtaining skilled labor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: We analyze firm‐driven labor market search, where firms "hunt" for talent rather than rely on workers to apply for vacancies. We leverage three approaches. We develop a model of firm‐driven search and derive equilibrium conditions under which firms use this channel. We test our model's predictions using two data sources. Data from a nationally representative survey of 10,000 workers shows that the percentage hired through recruiting has increased from 4.9% in 1991 to 14.3% in 2022. This share is larger for higher‐skilled workers and those with online profiles on LinkedIn. We complement this analysis with data on the near universe of online job postings from 2010 through 2020. Consistent with our model and worker survey evidence, we find firms that demand higher‐skilled workers or operate in labor markets with heavy LinkedIn use are more likely to "hunt for talent." Managerial Summary: We study the phenomenon of "hunting" for talent, where firms fill open positions by searching for workers and inviting them to a recruiting process, rather than relying on workers to apply directly. We find that the percentage of workers hired through hunting has increased from 4.9% in 1991 to 14.3% in 2022. We propose that firms that rely more on high‐skilled workers and/or operate within industries with a higher share of available candidates with online profiles are more likely to hunt for their talent. We find support for this conjecture using two data sets, documenting the worker and firm side of the labor market. Data from a nationally representative survey of 10,000 workers shows they are more likely to have been "hunted" by their employer if they work in an occupation that requires more skills, or if their industry has more candidates with online profiles. Moreover, data on US‐wide job postings over the past decade shows that firms in need of highly skilled workers are more likely to invest in outbound recruiting capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Skilled technical workers are needed to make any country highly competitive and more productive globally. However, there are reports that the supply of skilled technical workers does not adequately meet the current and future demand in the US labor market, and this is expected to continue if proper efforts are not made to increase its supply. As a result, this study examines a relevant sample of the workforce (skilled technical workers) which is important to the USA but has been under-studied in management research by explaining the factors responsible for its sabotage and explaining how these factors should be considered by training service providers to educate and train their target audience to increase skilled technical workers in the country. The narrative literature review was utilized for the study. The study reveals that regulatory, demographic, environmental, educational, and occupational factors are responsible for the shortage of skilled technical workers in the USA. There is a need for training service providers to examine these factors to determine the kind of skilled technical workforce development programs to adopt, the target audience or people to benefit from them, and partner with one another to address the shortage of technical workers. Some of the ways to increase skilled technical workers are formulations of flexible policies backed by effective and efficient implementations, an increase in funding for education and training programs by the government, employers, and non-government organizations, and the motivation of existing workers to attract prospective workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The free flow of skilled labour, business persons, and talents (referred to as skilled labour) is considered as one of the elements contributing to the foundation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) Economic Community (AEC). The facilitation of ASEAN’s free flow of skilled labour is arguably unsuccessful because ASEAN members have preserved many constraints on the mobility of skilled workers. This research aims to analyse the hybrid approach to the free flow of skilled labour in ASEAN, which combines the liberalization of the movement of natural persons and qualification harmonization in accordance with the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services (AFAS), ASEAN Trade in Services Agreement, ASEAN Agreement on Natural Persons, Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MRAs), and ASEAN Qualification Reference Framework). The authors conceptualize the hybrid approach to the free flow of skilled labour in ASEAN to more effectively implement the regional provisions on the free flow of skilled and analyse its appropriateness and limitations. The research concludes that, for the long-term goal of upgrading the skills of ASEAN’s workforce, the hybrid approach is appropriate to ASEAN’s regional labour integration, under the principle of non-interference and the status of shortage of skilled labour. The authors propose several implications for ASEAN’s Member States to take advantage of the hybrid approach, maximize opportunities and reduce impediments from the impacts of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the ‘job polarization’ phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TVET² and tertiary education systems are constantly under pressure to deliver graduates meeting the labor market demand. The performance of these systems is commonly judged by the: a) scale of shortages of skilled labor reported by employers, and b) surpluses of graduates, some of whom may be unemployed or employed in low-skilled or diferent occupations leading to occupational and qualification mismatches. For various reasons, imbalances between the supply and demand for skilled labor may arise. For example, because the increasing education level of the population is outperforming the growth of skilled jobs in the economy, or industries do not absorb the TVET graduates. Also, trained persons may move abroad, etc. Likewise, an imbalance in the occupational structure of the labor market could arise because TVET and the tertiary systems may continue delivering graduates in occupations that give them little or no chance of finding a job, as the local labor market may already be saturated with jobse-ekers with similar occupational profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of trade sanctions on the relative demand for skilled labor and wages by using Iranian industrial manufacturing data covering 7 years before and 7 years after the sanction year. The decomposition of the change in the aggregate demand for skilled labor sheds light on the fact that it comes from labor reallocation within industries, not from across industries. The trade sanctions adversely affected both exporters' and non-exporters' total factor productivity; however, non-exporters endured a larger negative impact. As a result of the significant reduction in industries' total factor productivity, the relative demand for skilled labor decreases which results in a decrease in the real wage per-worker as well. Furthermore, exporters, compared to non-exporters, are responsible for more changes in the relative demand for skilled labor, are faster in changing skills, and their change in skills have a greater impact on the real wage per-worker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Management Analysis / Revista Gestão em Análise is the property of Revista Gestao em Analise and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to provide a critical discussion illustrating how novel business models can be developed using advanced information technology (IT) to overcome the effects of the labor shortage crisis and bring the industry back to the pre-pandemic performance benchmarks. Design/methodology/approach: The methodology of this research is based on a thorough literature review of academic and trade publications, guided by an analytic approach that comprehensively discusses the multiple facets of digitizing the human-intensive legacy hospitality business models. Findings: While broad in terms of multiple metrics, the hospitality industry has demonstrated an ability to incorporate IT-based business models within its legacy processes. The current hospitality context, corroborated with the lingering effects of the pandemic, requires the hospitality industry to address two important issues: chronic shortage of staff and unpredictable levels of performance of existing staff. Originality/value: This research discusses a human–resource crisis from an IT point of view and articulates several IT-based strategic solutions that should help hospitality organizations mitigate the effects of this crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As a fundamental human right, the right to health (RTH) can influence state actors' behaviour towards health inequities. Human rights advocates have invoked the RTH in a collective demand for improved access to essential medicines in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Similarly, scholars have used the RTH as a framework for analysing health problems. However, its utility for addressing skilled health worker (SHW) shortages in LMICs has been understudied. Realising that SHW shortages occur due to existing push-and-pull factors within and between LMICs and high-income countries (HICs), we sought to answer the question: "how, why, and under what circumstance does the RTH offer utility for addressing SHW shortages in LMICs?" Methods: We conducted a realist synthesis of evidence identified through a systematic search of peer-reviewed articles in Embase, Global Health, Medline (Ovid), ProQuest - Health & Medical databases, Scopus (Elsevier), Web of Science (Clarivate), CINAHL (EBSCO), APAIS-Health, Health Systems Evidence and PDQ-EVIDENCE; as well as grey literature from Google Scholar. Results: We found that the RTH offers utility for addressing SHW shortages in LMICs through HIC state actors' concerns for their countries' reputational risk, recognition of their obligation to support health workforce strengthening in LMICs, and concerns for the cost implication. State actors in LMICs will respond to adopt programs inspired by the RTH when they are convinced that it offers tangible national benefits and are not overly burdened with ensuring its success. The socio-economic and institutional factors that constrain state actors' response include financial cost and sustainability of rights'-based options. Conclusion: State and non-state actors can use the RTH as a resource for promoting collective action towards addressing SHW shortages in LMICs. It can also inform negotiations between state actors in LMICs and their HIC counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1940s, a substantial share of southern Black men moved from low-skilled to much better paying semiskilled jobs. Using newly digitized military data, I show that counties with higher World War II casualty rates among semiskilled White soldiers saw an increase in the share of semiskilled Black workers. These deaths opened new employment opportunities for Black southerners and, together with learning effects by employers, can explain 35% of the occupational upgrading at mid-century. I provide evidence that the casualty-induced labor shortages reduced racial barriers to entry, leading to a positive selection of Black workers into semiskilled employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the effects of trade liberalization on household income inequality and investigates whether trade liberalization or domestic reforms are the main factors influencing increasing inequality in Taiwan, a middle‐income open economy. We construct an empirical model by decomposing the sources of household disposable income in the quintile ratio and separate trade partners into OECD (Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development) and non‐OECD countries. Using time‐series data to estimate the long‐run effect, we find that net exports to OECD countries increase inequality, whereas net exports to non‐OECD countries insignificantly decrease inequality. This finding diverges from the prediction based on the Stolper–Samuelson theorem. Overall, trade liberalization increases income inequality, and the effect is mainly attributed to net exports to OECD countries. Moreover, we provide evidence that domestic reforms, particularly technological progress in favor of skilled labor and industrial structural change, rather than trade liberalization, are the main driving forces of income inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We find strong disagreements between hedge funds and other institutions in their common stock trades are twice as likely as agreements. Overall success of hedge funds' trades and poor performance of non‐hedge funds' trades are both confined to disagreement stocks. Although hedge funds are commonly positive feedback traders, they are neither positive nor negative feedback traders for stocks heavily sold by other institutions. Hedge funds also depend less on earnings news. Our findings highlight the importance of disagreement in studying the performance of institutional investors' trades and are consistent with the notion that skilled investors rely less on public information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper numerically simulates a dynamic general equilibrium model of a small open economy highlighting the contrasting effects of different aspects of globalization on the skill premium. Trade liberalization in the form of reductions in consumption and input tariffs are both shown to reduce the short-run skill premium. Over time the lower consumption tariff reduces it further, while the lower input tariff increases it. Financial liberalization in the form of reduced financial frictions increases the skill premium in the short run, but reduces it over time. The sensitivity and robustness of these patterns to structural characteristics are addressed in detail. Overall, the results stress the importance of taking a disaggregated and dynamic approach to evaluate the effects of globalization on the skill premium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the trade collapse in 2009, Globalisation has recovered but the growth rate slowed down compared to the preceding period of Hyper Globalisation. The persistence of this slowdown is remarkable. We argue that increased awareness of firms for the costs of involvement in global supply chains can explain the recent developments in trade flows. We formalise the existence, length and consequences of changes in fragmentation cost along global supply chains. From a theoretical point of view, we allow tasks to be a combination of different occupations while the model endogenises production fragmentation, allowing for multiple production stages in multiple countries, while remaining tractable. From an empirical point of view, the model explains both the period of Hyper Globalisation and the subsequent Slowbalisation in terms of changing fragmentation costs along global supply chains. The model is also consistent with developments regarding labour market polarisation associated with modern globalisation: the labour market position of medium-skilled workers in advanced countries has deteriorated relative to high- and low-skilled workers, which can be understood by changing global supply chains. Our model implies, however, that even with zero fragmentation costs the demand for certain occupations does not fall to zero for any country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies how the scarcity of different types of workers in a region shapes firm innovation across industries, using the unbalanced regional sex ratios in China as a source of identification strategy. The empirical results show that the shortage of female workers has spurred firms in female‐intensive industries to innovate more, particularly in industries with low substitution between female and male workers, consistent with the price effect of the directed technical change theory. In male‐intensive industries with high elasticity of substitution and regions with more skewed local sex ratios, firms are more innovative, demonstrating that the market size effect of the directed technical change theory is also at play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Administration & Economics is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

One of the key questions facing immigration policy-makers is which jobs should be eligible for work visas. This question has dominated discussions about the post-Brexit immigration system, which has focused in particular on the issue of shortages. While the UK government resisted calls to open labour migration routes in low-wage or low-skilled jobs with high demand for foreign workers, workers in middle- and high-skilled jobs that are deemed to face a labour market shortage can qualify with significantly lower wages. This paper examines the arguments for and against using immigration policy to prioritize labour migration in 'shortage occupations'. It argues that the idea is politically appealing but problematic in practice. Shortages are more difficult to measure satisfactorily than policy-makers may imagine, and different methodologies produce different results. This makes it unwise to develop an immigration policy that depends too heavily on the notion that the shortage list is an accurate reflection of what is really happening in the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reliable access to labor is an ongoing key concern for many employers, in particular for those in regions. As an attempt to help mitigate the effects of labor shortages, immigration has been deployed as a key strategy, but most immigrants are concentrated in large cities. A sector that represents an interesting case in point is the food production sector, which includes primary agriculture and food processing. We use a rich longitudinal micro‐database for the years 2001–2013 from the Canadian Employer‐Employee Dynamic Database to identify the factors that have an impact on the recruitment and retention of Canadian‐born and immigrant workers in the primary agriculture and food processing sectors. In particular, in response to the efforts to explore permanent residence pathways, whether or not immigrants with previous Canadian experience are more likely to stay in the sectors after entering remains a key question for policymakers that we investigate [EconLit Citations: J15, J18, J21, J63, Q10, Q12]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article generalizes central results from the theory of (endogenously) directed technical change to settings where technology does not take a labour-augmenting form and with arbitrarily many levels of skill. Building on simple notions of complementarity, the results remain intuitive despite their generality. The developed theory allows to study the endogenous determination of labour-replacing, that is, automation technology through the lens of directed technical change theory. In an assignment model with a continuum of differentially skilled workers and capital, where capital perfectly substitutes for labour in the production of tasks, any increase in the relative supply of skilled workers stimulates investment into improving the productivity of capital, potentially leading skill premia to increase in relative skill supply. Relatedly, trade with a skill-scarce country discourages improvements in capital productivity, potentially reversing the standard Heckscher–Ohlin effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The Chinese fund market has witnessed significant developments in recent years. However, although there has been a range of studies assessing fund performance in developed industries, the rapidly developing fund industry in China has received very little attention. This study aims to examine the performance of open-end securities investment funds investing in Chinese domestic equity during the period May 2003 to September 2020. Specifically, applying a non-parametric bootstrap methodology from the literature on fund performance, the authors investigate the role of skill versus luck in this rapidly evolving investment funds industry. Design/methodology/approach: This study evaluates the performance of Chinese equity securities investment funds from 2003–2020 using a bootstrap methodology to distinguish skill from luck in performance. The authors consider unconditional and conditional performance models. Findings: The bootstrap methodology incorporates non-normality in the idiosyncratic risk of fund returns, which is a major drawback in "conventional" performance statistics. The evidence does not support the existence of "genuine" skilled fund managers. In addition, it indicates that poor performance is mainly attributable to bad stock picking skills. Practical implications: The authors find that the top-ranked funds with positive abnormal performance are attributed to "good luck" not "good skill" while the negative abnormal performance of bottom funds is mainly due to "bad skill." Therefore, sensible advice for most Chinese equity investors would be against trying to "pick winners funds" among Chinese securities investment funds but it would be recommended to avoid holding "losers." At the present time, investors should consider other types of funds, such as index/tracker funds with lower transactions. In addition, less risk-averse investors may consider Chinese hedge funds [Zhao (2012)] or exchange-traded fund [Han (2012)]. Originality/value: The paper makes several contributions to the literature. First, the authors examine a wide range (over 50) of risk-adjusted performance models, which account for both unconditional and conditional risk factors. The authors also control for the profitability and investment risks in Fama and French (2015). Second, the authors select the "best-fit" model across all risk-adjusted models examined and a single "best-fit" model from each of the three classes. Therefore, the bootstrap analysis, which is mainly based on the selected best-fit models, is more precise and robust. Third, the authors reduce the possibility that findings may be sample-period specific or may be a survivor (upward) biased. Fourth, the authors consider further analysis based on sub-periods and compare fund performance in different market conditions to provide more implications to investors and practitioners. Fifth, the authors carry out extensive robustness checks and show that the findings are robust in relation to different minimum fund histories and serial correlation and heteroscedasticity adjustments. Sixth, the authors use higher frequency weekly data to improve statistical estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Scientiarum Polonorum. Oeconomia is the property of Wydawnictwo SGGW and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We measure U.S. listed companies' skilled labor risk—that is, the potential failure in attracting and retaining skilled labor, by the intensity of discussions on this issue in 10-K filings. We show that this measure effectively captures firm risk due to the mobility of skilled labor. We find that an increase from the 25th to the 75th percentile in the skilled labor risk would increase the skilled labor wage by 22% (or $15,593) and also lead to higher equity-based incentive pay. The skilled labor risk also interacts with other corporate policies such as financial leverage, cash holdings, and M&As. (JEL G30, G32, G34, H20, J20, J24, J40, J41) Received September 28, 2020; editorial decision March 12, 2021 by Editor Andrew Ellul. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opening the capital account allows financially constrained firms to raise capital from abroad. Since capital and skilled labor are relative complements, this increases the relative demand for skilled labor versus unskilled labor, leading to higher wage inequality. Using aggregate data and exploiting variation in the timing of capital account openings across 20 mainly European countries, I find that opening the capital account increases aggregate wage inequality. In order to identify the mechanism, I use sectoral data and exploit variation in external financial dependence and capital-skill complementarity across industries. I find that capital account opening increases sectoral wage inequality, particularly in industries with both high financial needs and strong complementarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the current Presidential administration's policy to reduce imports to the US and its restrictive attitudes toward immigration, it is relevant to investigate how imports and immigration are related. Existing studies have typically analyzed the effects of immigration on imports. But we wondered if the reverse causality could be worthy of examination. Thus, this study explores the impacts of trade policy on immigration. The first part discusses whether trade policies impact immigration, and the second part delves deeper into the heterogeneous effects of trade policies on high-skilled and low-skilled immigration. A large country's restrictive import policies increase labor demand stemming from the increased demand for import substitution. Thus, workers in the exporting countries see a strong incentive to move to importing countries. Such restrictions also affect the propensity to immigrate of high- and low-skilled workers differently. Net capital inflows increase because trade restrictions appear to decrease capital outflows to exporting countries in part by losing investors' confidence. This increases the demand for high-skilled workers as capital complements them. Therefore, high-skilled workers are more migratory than those of low-skilled. Using a panel of 20 OECD countries for the period of 1980–2010 and an instrumental variable method, the results show that restricted trade policies increase immigration and that such policies have a stronger impact on the high-skilled immigration than those of low-skilled. A clearer understanding of the channels through which trade will be a determinant of skilled migration may assist policymakers to craft an appropriate policy environment that enhances import substitution of skill-intensive goods that would serve to discourage skilled emigration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Poor Maternal and Child Health (MCH) outcomes pose challenges to India's ability to attain Goal-3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The government of India strengthened the existing network of frontline health workers (FHWs), under its National Rural Health Mission in 2005 and subsequent National Urban Health Mission in 2013 as a strategy to mitigate the shortage of skilled health workers and to provide affordable healthcare services. However, there is a lack of robust national-level empirical analysis on the role of maternal engagement with FHWs in influencing the level of maternal and child health care utilisation and child health outcomes in India.Methods: Using data from the nationally representative Indian National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2015-2016, this paper aims to investigate the intensity of engagement of FHWs with married women of child-bearing age (15-49 years), its influence on utilisation of maternal and child healthcare services, and child health outcomes. Our empirical analyses use multivariate regression analyses, focusing on five maternal and child health indicators: antenatal care visits (ANC) (4 or > 4 times), institutional delivery, full-immunisation of children, postnatal care (PNC) (within 2 days of delivery), and child survival.Results: Our analysis finds that maternal engagement with FHWs is statistically significant and a positive predictor of maternal and child health care utilisation, and child survival. Further, the level of engagement with FHWs is particularly important for women from economically poor households. Our robustness checks across sub-samples of women who delivered only in public health institutions and those from rural areas provides an additional confidence in our main results.Conclusions: From a policy perspective, our findings highlight that strengthening the network of FHWs in the areas where they are in shortage which can help in further improving the utilisation of maternal and child healthcare services, and health outcomes. Also, the role of FHWs in the government health system needs to be enhanced by improving skills, working environment, and greater financial incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental regulation could affect skill premium by affecting the relative supply and demand for skilled labor and non-skilled labor; meanwhile, it could also exert influences on skill premium indirectly by optimizing industrial structure. This essay conducts empirical tests based on the panel data of Chinese cities at prefecture level or above from 2005 to 2016 by analyzing the influence mechanism of environmental regulations on skill premium as well as the intermediate effect of industrial structure. The results show that generally environmental regulation has remarkable promoting effect on skill premium and the industrial structure shows significant positive mediating effect; however, the mediating effect of industrial structure shows regional heterogeneity, which is negative in the eastern and western regions and positive in the central region. The results of the research could provide a theoretical basis and decision-making references for China in reasonable control of skill premium and guaranteeing skilled labors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are growing claims that increasing skill mismatch, or skill deficit, is impeding further economic growth and industrialisation in Vietnam. Previous studies often attributed it to the failure of supply-side initiatives to meet increasing skill demand. However, it is still uncertain whether skill demand is increasing in Vietnam, as the supply-side approach presumes. Through questionnaires and in-depth qualitative interviews, this research investigated employer perceptions of skill mismatch at the intermediate occupation level in the machine manufacturing industry. This sector is expected to lead higher value-added industrialisation. It found that employers are not uniformly concerned about large skill shortages because many of them do not require large numbers of skilled workers due to intensified supply chain competition, small domestic markets, and incremental technological progress. In order to achieve upskilling and further industrialisation, Vietnam needs an integrated skill formation strategy which not only improves skill supply but also stimulates the dynamism of skill demand, as the demand-side approach proposes. The research findings suggest that one possible way to evolve the demand-side approach in Vietnam is to develop supporting industries. These industries typically contain some dynamic suppliers which have high aspirations for ascending value chains and higher demand for intermediate workers than assemblers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic development that preceded the economic crisis of 2008 has caused a lack of staff on the labor market, in particular of specialists in certain key areas, in all developed countries. The acute shortage of skilled staff at European level is also found among Romania, where companies play an important role in defining society at local and regional level. Romania has about 19 million people, of whom only 5 million are full-time employees, and the labor market estimates a shortage of more than 1 million employees in 2021, according to a study by audit and consulting firm PwC. In this respect, it was considered appropriate to analyze two development macroregions in Romania, which register smallest, respectively the and largest population in terms of national level. The general objective of the research is to identify the macroregion that has a greater potential for making private and even public investments. In this way, the method of multicriteria analysis at the level of applied methodology was used, so that current and future entrepreneurs can observe a clear delimitation of the two opposite areas of the country, regarding the existing potential on the labor market. Being positioned in opposite parts of the country, Macroregion Two and Macroregion Four each have certain specific economic characteristics, which can lead to a sustainable maroregional strategy for on the stability and prosperity of the labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Baby boomers have modified every institution they have touched and changed the landscapes of education, housing, investing, and many social establishments. Why would retirement be any different? After all, employees face a well documented shortfall of the funds needed for retirement. Employers are confronted with a brain drain and the loss of skilled labor when the boomer cohort adds candles to its annual cake. There is a need for adaptive retirement strategies--on the parts of both employees and employers. There is no longer one standard retirement approach, and given the ever-changing employment environment, it is crucial for both employees and employers to stay innovative when it comes to retirement solutions. One such innovation is phased retirement. Phased retirement can be thought of as a broad variety of employment arrangements allowing retirees to continue working at reduced workloads while gradually shifting from full-time work to full-time retirement. This article looks at the characteristics of phased retirement, different approaches to phased retirement, and why it can be beneficial for both employees and employers, as well as the challenges phased retirement presents. It is concluded that the baby boom generation will make retirement phasing the next step in its game-changing march through time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study conducts an empirical investigation of the effect of skilled migration on income inequality in the origin countries. Developing countries are low‐skilled labour abundant and high‐skilled labour scarce. Emigration of high‐skilled labour increases the relative supply of low‐skilled labour in the country. Excess supply of low‐skilled labour depresses the wage rate of these countries while the wage rate of the highly skilled increases leading, to the Gulf of inequality, at least in the short‐run. Complementarity between high‐skilled and low‐skilled labour could be another channel. Consequently, skilled migration is usually seen as inducing losses for the low‐skilled left behind. Using a panel of 110 developing countries from 1980‐2010, the study finds robust results to different econometrics specifications and subsamples that high‐skilled migration increases income inequality in the short‐run while there appears to be no effect of low‐skilled migration on inequality. A clearer understanding of the channels through which high‐skilled migration will be detrimental for income inequality in developing countries may assist policymakers to craft appropriate policies to curtail high‐skilled migration, which would serve to improve equality, hence reducing social and political unrest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social-distance policy of most governments and the pandemic impact of corona virus (COVID-19) on human health are expected to shutter international investment and business environment. However, there is little or no study to show the early empirical evidence on this relationship, most especially its impacts on FDI flows in the economies. This note provides a preliminary evidence of the impact of COVID-19 on FDI outflows. Our data cover cross-sectional first quarter, average data; between 1 January – 31 March, 2020 from 43 countries. Using Ordinary least square (OLS) and Quantile regressions, we document that there is a positive relationship between COVID-19 confirmed cases and FDI outflows. In addition, there is a positive impact of COVID-19 related confirmed deaths on FDI outflows across all quartiles estimations. This means that COVID-19 pandemic fuels the foreign direct investment outflows. The major causes could be the reduction in the ability of firms to invest due to a shortage in the number of skilled employees because they care for their health safety, a decline in corporate profits and increase in cost of finance. In addition, the propensities to invest have been widely affected negatively in most economies. These factors also become obvious when most economies experience a very high level of risk perception in financial market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 19th century, the Cape Colony displayed a seemingly insatiable appetite for cheap, unskilled labour in commercial agriculture, domestic service, mining and for public works. During the 1877–78 War of Ngcayecibi, or ninth frontier war, the colonial government captured, deported and indentured thousands of Xhosa men, women and children to address perceived labour shortages. Children as young as six years of age could be indentured for periods of up to 12 years. The policy of using the war to create a pool of cheap, exploitable labour was dressed up as 'civilising' Africans. This article seeks to address gaps in the historiography of the forced labour scheme by examining its scope and scale and the experiences and responses of people who were forced into servitude. I argue that forced labour was as much a political and cultural intervention as an economic one, and that it formed part of a broader colonial policy of establishing the dominance of the colonial state over Africans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article assesses the structural changes in the employers' demand for skilled labor following the 2007 Great Recession in the U.S. based on data gathered from labor market analytics Burning Glass Technologies. Topics discussed include increase in the share of online job vacancies that required a bachelor's degree in 2007-2019, opportunity for companies to upgrade skill requirements after the recession, and the increasing demand for educated workers as a feature of the post-recession economy.

Labor market prospects for youth have deteriorated significantly in many OECD countries over recent decades. While the extent and consequences of falling youth employment are commonly studied, attempts at understanding its causes have been much more limited. The present paper attempts to fill this explanatory gap. We suggest that the secular decline in youth employment can be accounted for by the structural change of skill. This process of structural change has two interrelated components: (a) one part where skill supply (individual educational attainment) and skill demand (educational requirements of jobs) grow together in what can be called matched upgrading and (b) another part where excess skill supply leads to mismatch and crowding-out. These components of skill growth have commonly been treated separately and incompletely in the literature. We build on both of them in developing our account of why the labor market for youth has weakened. Using data on 10 European countries from the EU Labor Force Surveys over the period 1998 to 2015, we estimate associations between the structural change of skill and youth employment decline. The main conclusion is that both matched skill upgrading and overeducation are strongly and negatively linked to young people's employment chances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of skill formation for young people and the challenges of youth unemployment and underemployment are at the forefront of global development agendas. However, there is still an open debate about the most adequate policy frameworks to tackle these societal challenges and, particularly, about the role that the state and the market should play in the coordination of skills supply and demand. Taking Chile as a case study, the paper analyses how the market model of skill formation is re-contextualised by practitioners and other stakeholders at the local level. Through a realist evaluation approach, the paper tests to what extent the underlying theoretical assumptions of the market model hold up when confronted with the reality of the contexts in which young people, education providers and employers make decisions. The case of Chile is particularly interesting for the comparative literature because of its extreme neoliberal orientation and the centrality of the market in the allocation of resources and opportunities among different social groups. The findings show the limitations of the market for coordinating the supply and demand of skills and its negative consequences on the educational and work prospects of young people, especially the most disadvantaged.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]