Part 2: People Out of Work

In Part 1 of the Workforce Conundrum, I discussed one of the factors in “why” this whole conundrum exists, in Part 2; I will address another of the major influencers to “why.”

One can’t talk about people being out of work without discussing the unemployment rate.  In the European Union (EU), the overall unemployment rate is 6.8%.  But that is a little deceptive as the EU is made up currently of 27 countries.  According to the latest Eurostat data, the countries that make up the EU range in unemployment from 7.6% in July 2017 to 8.2% in July 2018.[i]  (See Figure 1 below.) In the United States, the unemployment rate is reported as 3.8%[ii] for the country.  In Asia, the officially reported numbers in some of the major countries are: 3.8% in China, 4.2%[iii] in Korea, 2.4% in Japan and according to Trading Economics the general unemployment rate for Southeast Asia is 2.84%.

So far so good, right?  Well, let’s look a little deeper into those unemployment rates where we can because it will be critical in scoping the available workforce for all these unfilled jobs we talked about in Part 1.

Figure 1: EU Unemployment Rates by Country (July 2018)[iv]

Let’s start with the EU.  In the EU, there are typically three categories of unemployment numbers counted: jobless, underemployed part-time workers, and jobless persons not seeking employment.  When Eurostat categorizes...

Part 1: The Job Needs / Skills Gap

We have been hearing about workforce issues for some time now, but do they really exist?  I guess that depends on your perspective.  Many seem to think so…so, let’s start peeling the onion to get to the heart of the matter and see if we can’t ultimately recommend some solutions as well.

First, a bit of background on me, so you know from which I speak.  I have the privilege of leading a trade association that operates on behalf of the entire electronics industry (www.ipc.org).  Because of this role, I see many different segments of the industry (design, suppliers, raw materials, manufacturing (boards and assembly), harnessing, primes, etc.).  These members range from multi-billion-dollar multinationals to small and medium-sized organizations (~80%) y across the globe.   These companies serve many critical industries like medical, transportation, communication, consumer, computer, defense, aerospace, etc. and are in most parts of the world.  These companies employ millions of people and are most assuredly in a growth market.

The range of concern varies broadly among these companies.  When I ask the question, “Is workforce education a problem?” the answers range from “a little one,” or “sure, we have some challenges,” to much more desperate “my business is suffering – we’re going to close our company if we don’t find...