Investing in the skills of tomorrow: Avoiding a spiralling skills crisis – The Hays Global Skills Index 2018

Attracting and retaining the right talent is crucial to an organisation’s success, wherever in the world it operates. For the seventh year running, this report––created in partnership with Hays, the global recruitment consultant––presents an exhaustive analysis of the labour market landscape in 33 countries, for the benefit of workers, firms, and policymakers. Combining the local expertise of Hays with the analytical knowledge of Oxford Economics, the Hays Global Skills Index describes the latest shifts and trends in each labour market, and uses its unique Index to assess how easy or difficult it is for organisations to locate the skilled professionals they require. The report also investigates the issue of slow wage growth, and related global trends such as the slowdown in productivity growth since the financial crisis. What does this mean for workforces of the future? How will they be impacted by the twin forces of globalisation and technology? Who will be the real winners and losers from the increasing adoption of automation and machine learning? We explore the wider implications of these trends for workers, and ask what this means for policymakers around the world