Global workforce

Global workforce refers to the international labor pool of workers, including those employed by multinational companies and connected through a global system of networking and production, immigrant workers, transient migrant workers, telecommuting workers, those in export-oriented employment, contingent work or other precarious employment. As of 2012, the global labor pool consisted of approximately 3 billion workers, around 200 million unemployed. Global workforce refers to the international labor pool of workers, including those employed by multinational companies and connected through a global system of networking and production, immigrant workers, transient migrant workers, telecommuting workers, those in export-oriented employment, contingent work or other precarious employment. As of 2012, the global labor pool consisted of approximately 3 billion workers, around 200 million unemployed. The global workforce, or international labor pool, reflects a new international division of labor that has been emerging since the late 1970s in the wake of other forces of globalization. The global economic factors driving the rise of multinational corporations—namely, cross-border movement of goods, services, technology and capital—are changing ways of thinking about labor and the structure of today's workforce. With roots in the social processes surrounding the shift to standardization and industrialization, post-industrial society in the Western world has been accompanied by industrialization in other parts of the world, particularly in Asia. As industrialization takes hold worldwide and more cultures move away from traditional practices in respect to work and labor, the ways in which employers think about and utilize labor are changing. Usually barriers come into play such as different laws. The global supply of labor almost doubled in absolute numbers between the 1980s and early 2000s, with half of that growth coming from Asia. At the same time, the rate at which new workers entered the workforce in the Western world began to decline. The growing pool of global labor is accessed by employers in more advanced economies through various methods, including imports of goods, offshoring of production, and immigration. Global labor arbitrage, the practice of accessing the lowest-cost workers from all parts of the world, is partly a result of this enormous growth in the workforce. While most of the absolute increase in this global labor supply consisted of less-educated workers (those without higher education), the relative supply of workers with higher education increased by about 50 percent during the same period. From 1980 to 2010, the global workforce grew from 1.2 to 2.9 billion people. According to a 2012 report by the McKinsey Global Institute, this was caused mostly by developing nations, where there was a 'farm to factory' transition. Non-farming jobs grew from 54 percent in 1980 to almost 73 percent in 2010. This industrialization took an estimated 620 million people out of poverty and contributed to the economic development of China, India and others. The Institute estimates that increased exports in developing countries contribute to one-fifth of non-farm jobs in those nations and that immigrants from developing countries contributed to 40 percent of the workforce in advanced ones. By 2008 foreign-born workers accounted for 17 percent of all STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) positions in the United States. Employment is growing fastest in emerging and developing economies. Over the past 5 years, the incidence of long-term unemployment (the share of unemployed persons out of work for 12 months or more) has increased 60% in theadvanced and developing economies for which data exist. Global unemployment is expected to approach 208 million in 2015, compared with slightly over 200 million in 2012. From January 2012 to January 2013, Italy experienced the largest increase in its unemployment rate (+2.1 percentage points), followed by the Netherlands (+1.0 percentage point), and France (+0.6 percentage point). Over that same period, Canada experienced the largest decrease in its unemployment rate (−0.5 percentage points), followed by the United States (−0.4 percentage point). The number of people employed in precarious work (also called 'vulnerable employment')— employment that is poorly paid, insecure, unprotected, and cannot support a household—has increased dramatically in recent decades. This includes part-time employment, self-employment or freelance work, homeworkers, fixed-term or temporary work, on-call work, other contingent work, and telecommuting jobs. These numbers show that, globally, the structure of the workforce has been changing. In addition to the economic and social factors described above, a large part of this restructuring is also due to demographic factors, changes in the structure of the world's population. In wealthier countries with more advanced economies, fewer people die from communicable diseases and, overall, life expectancies are much longer while birth rates are lower. In these areas, the overall median age is rising (see List of countries by median age). The youngest populations, primarily those in Southeast Asia and Africa, are those in which overall life expectancies are lower—many children and some adults still die from communicable diseases—but the birth rate is also high. The movement of individuals across national, regional, cultural, or linguistic boundaries has been referred to as 'global mobility.' This global workforce mobility impacts an employer's ability to provide goods or services to users and consumers. Management theory attempts to address these movements of globally mobile individuals ranging from business expatriates to more recently identified groups such as self-initiated expatriates, international business travelers, international commuters, and 'flexpatriates' (short-term assignees and international commuters). Movement of people across national borders is becoming increasingly common. Traditionally, this has been described in terms of push and pull forces that drive migrant workers and immigrant laborers toward more developed countries. However, not all labor mobility is outward movement toward more advanced economies. An increasing number of individuals move to less developed countries to provide new expertise or return their expertise to their country of origin. This includes a return movement or repatriation of internationally relocated individuals such as immigrants, refugees, sojourners, retirees, military personnel, international students, or other expatriates. Such movements of people may influence interstate relationships concerning politics, economics and culture. Thus, global workforce mobility research is relevant to both host and home country policies. From a focus on longer-term and assigned expatriation, current research is focusing on the drivers and dynamics of a range of new alternative forms of global mobility in the workforce.