Labour shortages, foreign migrant recruitment and the portability of qualifications in East and South-East Asia

This paper examines labour shortages, admission of foreign workers and the portability of qualifications in Japan, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Singapore and Thailand.

This paper examines labour shortages, admission of foreign workers and the portability of qualifications in Japan, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Singapore and Thailand. These countries have been among the most economically successful in the world in recent decades. While this economic success has resulted in many national gains it also has squeezed their current and future labour markets. Rapid economic growth and the rapid transformation of economies, usually towards a more skill-intensive context, lead to a strong demand for a highly skilled workforce that the country’s native population is not able to fill. The combination of the supply-side and demand-side factors leads to an undersupply of workers, thus a labour shortage. Labour shortages have increased the pressure on all the governments to admit foreign workers, mainly from labour-rich but poorer neighbouring countries.

The five countries included in this paper differ in their capacity and in the way they assess and address labour shortages. Several measures have been used, including longer working hours, postponement of retirement, investing in automation and outsourcing; for the purpose of this paper, only the use of foreign workers is analysed.