The world at work: Matching skills and jobs in Asia

Abstract

As a result of changing employer needs, shifts in the labour supply, and demographic forces, there could be increasingly significant mismatches between worker skills and job requirements by 2030, which could raise structural unemployment levels and slow economic growth. These gaps would include shortages of high-skill workers in advanced economies and China (largely due to aging). In developing economies such as India and Indonesia there could be too few middle-skill workers to support industrialization. This article provides a detailed analysis of these theoretical gaps and examines reforms in education and other initiatives that, along with market forces, could head off the shortages.