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Data and anecdotal evidence suggest that Japan is suffering from labor shortages, which are large in an international perspective, have a negative impact on potential growth, and reduce the effectiveness of monetary and fiscal stimulus. This paper focuses on policy options to ease Japan's labor shortages. In particular, we focus on possible measures to increase reliance on foreign labor. Other policy recommendations to deal with shortages include policies aimed at increasing female labor participation, encouraging wage growth, increasing investment, as well as training and other active labor market policies.

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Amidst slowing economic growth, global labour markets have shown resilience in 2023. Global unemployment has dropped to the lowest level since the outbreak of the [COVID-19] pandemic and labour force participation has recovered in most regions. Despite these positive headline indicators, fragility has emerged in working conditions, and a cost-of-living crisis has arisen from fast-rising energy and food prices. Employment growth in 2024 is projected to falter even though global unemployment will remain broadly unchanged. Major decent work deficits, which to a large degree predate the pandemic, are set to persist under these conditions - especially gender participation gaps, working poverty, and informality.

This [report] provides a comprehensive assessment of labour imbalances that arose with the recovery from the pandemic and exist alongside persistent decent work deficits. It analyses global patterns, regional differences, and outcomes across groups of workers. The report also offers labour market projections for 2024 and 2025. Finally, it presents trends in labour force participation, hours worked and employment growth and analyses their contributions to labour market imbalances.

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This paper surveys issues associated with the minimum wage and its economic impacts in Japan. First, I discuss how the minimum wage is discussed in recent political debates. Next, I explain economic factors surrounding the Japanese labor market that are related to the minimum wage: specifically, I take up the issues of globalization and 'mismatch' (i.e. a labor shortage exists in some industries and/or occupations and, at the same time, there is unemployment). Then I provide an overview of facts regarding the minimum wage for the past two decades. Finally, I critically review recent empirical studies that examine the employment effects of the minimum wage (Tachibanaki and Urakawa 2007; Kambayashi, Kawaguchi, and Yamada 2009).

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Background: A well-educated, sufficient nursing workforce improves population health and standards of nursing care. Analysing workforce policies assists nurses to learn from the past and develop better future policies. Aim: Describe policy-making processes in the first Thai government plan to increase nursing capacity and improve nursing education quality. Design: A qualitative study employing Longest's model to examine policy-making processes. Methods: Data were obtained from 28 in-depth interviews with key informants, who had been committee members and former deans of nursing involved with the policy processes in the 1990s. Both qualitative and quantitative data were extracted from relevant documents, and content analysis employed with all data.

Findings: Three policy phases were identified. Policy formulation, where three streams of problems, politics and policy resulted in identification of nursing shortage, changes of government incumbents and needing to increase nurse production; Policy implementation included creating methods of implementation, appointing responsible people and committees, creating operational plans, producing more nurses and faculty development projects and Policy modification which incorporated implementing the first Thai international doctoral degree in English, a collaborative programme between universities. Study limitations: Not all key informants could be accessed due to the passage of time. Findings are unique to Thailand but inform internationally of nurses' abilities and need to be involved in policy.

Conclusion: Nurses were involved in all policy phases. While the policy produced positive developments in growing nursing capacity and education in the past, nursing shortages remained and are now acute in Thailand. Implications for Nursing/Health Policy: Lessons learned from this policy analysis help explain why the nursing education and nursing shortage policy was legislated through the government agenda, and the active involvement of Thai nurses in this process. Nurses globally need to be at the policy-making table to try to reduce nursing shortages, and enhance practice and education environments.

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Green growth aims to foster economic growth and development while coping with the concerns over lack of natural resources, environmental depredation, and climate change. Green growth aims to catalyze investment and innovation, which will underpin sustained growth and give rise to new economic opportunities and change for enhanced well-being. These green growth initiatives and stimulus packages inevitably lead to restructuring of economy and industries, which in turn bring about changes in employment and jobs. Green jobs have been identified and emerged across different sectors. Green jobs require adequate skills and call for education and training strategies to reduce skill gaps that may exist during the transition to a sustainable green economy. Labor market shifts will occur due to the restructuring of industries in response to green growth. This research was conducted to find out the level of demand for skill and manpower required in specific areas for career development of integrated growth and green jobs. The scope of survey includes green energy companies nationwide and the study focused on 100 sample companies in 15 industry areas. The survey results show that the shortage of professional technical manpower should be addressed by establishing formal curricula such as at universities, while short-term programs should be expanded for skilled technical manpower. As for the qualitative aspect, training courses should be established for professional technical manpower, while alternatives such as in-house transfers and training should be considered for skilled technical manpower close to the field.

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This document provides a summary of a study that aimed to identify the future directions and challenges of utilising employed labour force in agriculture. The study was prompted as a result of consistent labour shortage in this sector. The study found that the most basic measures to redress this issue include the facilitation of job selection in the general labour market and utilisation of a workforce supply-demand system. However, these measures can not be easily accepted in the existing institutional mechanism of agriculture. The following recommendations are made in terms of labour policies: promoting efficiency of agricultural management based on the concepts of selection and concentration to provide greater reward and satisfaction; enhancing the system to facilitate the utilisation of workers on a non-annual, non-regular, non-continuous, and non-direct basis, as a means of making use of the workforce for the purpose of alleviating psychological burdens attributed to the traditional idea of land-owning farmers that directly links cultivation and possession of farmlands; establishing public recognition with respect to farmland management and other associated issues, for which the national government is responsible, and preparation of a social system for securing the labour force required for farmland protection and management, both before and after the new concept of intensified or advanced technology-based farmlands takes root; analysing required work responsibilities and task details and then presenting each job position with a single job title that can precisely describe job requirements, using expressions that can be widely understood among the general public, in order to secure labour force in the general labour market; and developing employee management methods that enable educational trainings and task instructions/orders based on the responsibility and task analyses. Show less

China is actively pursuing a transformation from an export-oriented, low-skilled and labour-intensive economy towards a science, technology and innovation-based economy. Such transformation inevitably spurs rapid growth in the demand for high skilled workers. More than ever committed to globalization, the Chinese government is attaching more importance to the attraction of foreign talents who not only bring valuable resources to help boost China's economic development but also contribute to building and strengthening the relationship between China and the rest of the world. Working towards this objective of competing for global talent, China has become ever more aware of the urgent need for the introduction of specific schemes and policies to attract skilled international migrants. [This] report reviews the existing policies and practices of China concerning the attraction of foreign professionals and other skilled international migrants with a comparative analysis of talent attraction policies and their outcomes in Germany, Japan, and Singapore. Based on a comparative study, recommendations are put forward for China to improve its foreign talent policies and practices in order to be more successful in the international competition for talents.

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This study aims to explore, identify and document in the words and expressions of participants, the lived experience, challenges and rewards of a group of nurses qualified in other countries in their journey through interview, selection, arrival, registration and integration within the Australian nursing system. The author found that each story was as unique as the individual telling it however, several broad themes emerged from the narratives as insights to the experience. These themes were: trust and fear; English language requirements; immigration issues; belonging, integration and family; and living and working in the West. From these insights, recommendations for future recruitment activity of this kind have been deduced and included at the end of this report.

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This article discusses the mismatch in skilled workers in the Asian region, there are either too many or not enough skilled trades people for the labour market. Across the region, population growth, combined with migration from rural to urban areas and increased urbanization, has resulted in large pools of semi- and unskilled workers, many of whom are unable to integrate socially, politically, or economically into mainstream society. Inadequate investment in human capital fuels labor supply-demand and policy reform is needed to strengthen the performance of the domestic economy. Strengthening education is a priority concern in nearly all developing countries in Asia, encouragingly, these countries seek to incorporate advances in information and communication technology to improve delivery of higher education. This will help ensure more people are better attuned to opportunities in the labor markets. In this scheme, targeting training regimes to skills in demand is as important as increasing access to training, if not more so. It will take five or more years to enable public vocational education and training (VET) institutions to deliver skills that are attractive to employers, therefore investigations as to the role of private providers and companies in skills development is required. Show less

The ageing of the population of a country has many implications. Ageing raises the dependency ratio, meaning there are fewer people available to undertake productive work and contribute actively to the economy. In addition, population ageing raises the issue of labour productivity and labour quality. Productivity may be reduced by lower rates of labour-market participation among older people, and the quality of labour may be reduced in jobs requiring hard physical labour. Population ageing in the Republic of Korea has been plagued by additional factors. First, Korea has been experiencing ageing at an unprecedented speed, thereby making social and individual adjustment more difficult. Second, the social safety net for older people is not yet fully developed and access to welfare benefits is limited. Third, Korean workers begin to experience age-related job displacement as early as 45 years of age. Once displaced from their jobs, older people experience particular difficulties in obtaining new jobs, due to labour-market discrimination and also due to the structure of the labour market, where job mobility in general is relatively low. This study reviews key characteristics of ageing in Korea, identifies major issues associated with ageing, and suggests how retraining for older workers in Korea needs to be restructured to meet the challenges posed by a rapidly ageing society.

Published introduction.

The book from which this chapter is taken is indexed at TD/TNC 100.51. Individual chapters are indexed from TD/TNC 100.52 to TD/TNC 100.244. Show less