Where Are All the Workers?

Posted by on April 10, 2007

Business Week reports that companies worldwide are suddenly scrambling to manage a labor crunch. "With global growth running at a strong 5% a year since 2004, the strategies that companies developed to hold down labor costs -- including offshoring work to low-wage countries -- are running out of gas far sooner than many expected," according to the authors Peter Coy and Jack Ewing.

Labor shortages are greatest in Mexico (82% of companies report trouble filling jobs), Japan (61%), U.S. (41%), and Canada (36%). But even in China and India, cheap labor is drying up fast.

Economists say, pay more money, and the so-called labor shortage ends. But today's corporate labor strategies assume a labor surplus. "The challenge is finding people who can do the jobs on offer."