A Brief Review of Forecasting Labor and Skills Shortages

Abstract

A majority of the European Union (EU) states are facing labor and skill shortages in various sectors, along with high rates of unemployment. The sectors are I.T, health, consumer & commercial services, education, construction, engineering, to name a few. The root causes are mismatch between available and demanded skills and/or insufficient mobility of the EU residents, for which reasons could be many. Labor migration is a common tool employed by EU to address such skill & labor shortages. However, labor migration policies usually raise objections from the residents and may be politically uncomfortable. Therefore, it would be very useful if the gaps in the labor market are correctly estimated and migration is encouraged to that extent. The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether shortage projections can help formulate appropriate migration policies.