Two Types of Labor Shortage

Abstract

On the basis of field work in six Korean machine tool plants, two types of shortage are identified. One is a quantitative shortage, i.e. excess demand for labour, commonly found in small- and medium-sized plants. The other is a qualitative skills deficiency found in larger plants when existing employees do not have the sufficient skills they need to perform their jobs effectively. Low investment for skill formation, which is implicitly embedded in both the low-price product strategy and dependent technology policy, is mainly responsible for the skill deficiencies in large plants.