Employment market refers to a market in which employees look for jobs while employers look for employees (Atkinson and Storey, 2016). Employment market is a concept that demonstrates competition and relationship between different labor forces. This market has the tendency to grow and shrink based on labor demand and availability of workers supply which is present in overall economy. There are different factors which influence this market such as needs of specific industry, requirements of job functions and need for particular skill set and educational level. Employment market and its changes are an important element of any country’s economy and they are directly linked to demands of services and goods. This report is aimed at analyzing and evaluating features of national and international markets and how these markets have evolved over time.
National employment markets involve employees finding paying work, employers look for willing workers and rate of wages are decided. The employment markets can be national and international depending on their scope. National employment markets are formed of smaller and interacting labor markets for geographical locations, skills and different qualifications. There are different features of national employment markets. One of the main features of national employment is market is that it is inflexible and rigid (Aronson, 2019). The rigidity of employment market is natural because of geographical evolution, legal and institutional aspects, professional and lifestyle training. Between various industries and countries, differences between salaries exist across various regions of the country. Such rigidity is also due to low employment rate and high inflation rate. The employment market is influenced by supply and demand of employees, reaction of economic operators and effects of social-economic sectors. The volume and structure of workforce depends on labor demand which is dependent on demand of services and goods. Employment market is regulated; this feature of market is outcome of workforce particularity and requirement for ensuring employee protection. It is controlled by the competition through trade unions (Barbieri and Cutuli, 2015).
There is a constant need of improving employment market for fighting unemployment and making sure population employment is managed properly. Another feature of national employment market is that it is participatory and contractual market. Employers and employees make contracts and conduct negotiations and these provide tool for regulating structural, qualitative and quantitative aspects. Relationships between buyers and sellers are governed by agreements between representatives of public power, employers and employees as well as laws. Another feature of employment market is that it is administrative as companies’ resource management takes place as per demands of services and goods. This involves considering personnel wage plan as well as workforce. The national employment market is multidimensional due to economic, geographical, social and educational scale (Sacchi and Vesan, 2015). Geographical scale is characterized by working population, available workforce and population on age categories. Economic scale is characterized by public participation in economic process, population distribution according to areas of activity and professions and costs which is implied due to inactive population. Educational scale is characterized by training level of population, number of people belonging to specific learning form and average learning duration. Social scale is characterized by reconversion or insertion of employees and costs related to social protection. National employment market also tend to be inconsistent as employees have different levels of education, qualification, training, workers come from different geographical areas, genders, ages, standards and aspirations. National employment market is also imperfect due to contemporary economy and the competition is also not perfect. The price of workers is determined by factors of state national economies, bargaining power of patronage intervention or trade unions and state intervention.
The international employment market consists of systems of relations which establish as a result of interactions between States. This is concerned with coordination of demand and supply of global workforce and conditions that are associated with social protection, labor formation and wage (Bonoli, 2017). These relations are based on irregularity of labor distribution across different countries and existence of differences that occur at national level. The growing interdependence in modern world and globalization of production is leading national employment markets to lose isolation and insularity. There are transnational flows of workers who acquire systematic and permanent. Therefore, together with international market of services, capital and goods which are present in significant proportions, international employment market can be called sum of national markets and systems formed of relationships between different states. The demand for foreign workers increased when mass export of private productive capital took place and companies were created in countries utilizing local labor. Capital went to places of labor concentration that has cheaper workforce in exporting country. In new industrial countries still wages are lower as compared to other developed western countries. The world economy uses cheap labor resources and contributes to productive capital of economically developed countries depending on manufacturing and development of forms of work in organization.
The international labor market can be evaluated in two segments. The first segment of this market involves labour which consists of stability of employment skills, relatively constant employment, high salaries and qualifications and there is a clear hierarchy of qualifications. The international employment market features privileged layer of workers who belong to developed countries as well as developing countries (Avendano and Berkman, 2014). This layer of privileged employees is employed in various international organizations such as International monetary fund, UN specialized agencies, UNESCO, WTO and others. The international workers are employed in these organizations on international basis and the rule of professional suitability is rigid. Second segment covers workforce that belongs to different regions of the world that have relatively low level of economic development. In such a workforce there is a great need of identifying specific detachment with illegal labor, flow in industrial countries especially in United States. This category of workforce is often termed as environmental refugees who may leave their own countries and are forced to seek work in international markets. Thus an important feature of international market can be regarded as illegal movement of workers between countries. The economic function of illegal employment market is usually associated with requirements of great mass of medium and small companies in industrial countries. International employment market is employs illegal immigrants because they are cheap labor resources. Another segment of highly skilled employee such as engineers, scientists and systems analysts is also emerging in global employment market (Manning and Petrongolo, 2017). Development of this segment is because of rapid increase in world trade related to services.
The employment markets operate at national, local, regional and international levels and they reflect working of economies. There are various forces which influence these markets such as changes in external business environment, cheaper competition leading to unemployment, increase in consumer demand for services and good for a certain industry, changes taking place in production processes, changes in internal business environment, emergence of new business structures and technologies leading to unemployment, interventions of government, changes in level of occupations that are available, programs which support investment in training and education. Different laws also change the dynamics of employment markets such as Equal Pay Act, Race Relations Act, Sex Discrimination Act, Asylum and Immigration Act and National Minimum Wages or free movement of labor that affects employment rights (Subramanian and Megginson, 2018). These laws put restriction of how employees are recruited. Employment labor markets are evolving due to shift in demographics such as changing trends in aging and declining rate of birth. This shift in workforce demographic has lead to labor shortage and is leading employers and policy makers to think different about talent sourcing. The talent search in employment market is emerging differently as it is becoming more intense. Countries who are unable to find talent in one country they may employ remote employees from other countries.
Employment markets have also changed in aspect of individual choice as millennials are changing directions and pursing multiple careers in their working lives. The goal of millennials today is to be employable that is to develop expertise, skills and experience which are needed for moving up (Baruch, 2015). This is giving people more flexibility and greater choice at different stages in their lifetime career. The technological revolution has also changed employment markets as companies have shortened their business cycles and global completion has risen. Emergence of artificial intelligence is also impact job market as more and more jobs are becoming computerized. Changes have also taken place in client sophistication and data. Talent management has become a science for organization that handles big data and supply chain sophistication related to retention and recruitment. The goal of organization is to have better productivity and greater efficiency which is transforming the way companies looked at talent management.
The employers today are adapting to workforce trend, opportunities and wages which is being dictated by skills rather than tenure. There is talent shortage which is being tackled by retaining employees through greater investment in education and training programs. Based on the evaluation of features of national and international markets conducted above, it can be concluded that market feature may vary depending on economics of the different countries, emerging technologies, workforce dynamics and new laws being developed for talent management. Policy makers are in need of exploring new ways for talent retention locally and international by focusing on employment for life, encouraging lifelong development and learning and improving workforce mobility.
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