The latest World Economic Forum report explains that the global mobility of talent is becoming as critical to growth as the global mobility of goods and capital.
The findings from the latest report by the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group, is that by 2020 to 2030, 25 countries including China, Canada, Germany and the U.S. will have to look beyond their borders in order to attract new talents and maintain their rate of growth. In the study, titled “Global Talent Risk – Seven Responses,” the two organizations consider that human capital has now replaced financial capital as the engine of global economic prosperity, and that measures must be taken to avoid a talent shortage in the years to come.
While China will have to find twice as many qualified workers as today, Canada—like the U.S. and Germany—will have to attract more immigrants and develop its education system if it wants to compensate for retirements and sustain growth.
The report, which proposes seven responses to the challenge that talent mobility represents to global economic growth, recommends first introducing strategic workforce planning to remedy imbalances between supply and demand. This implies facilitating migration in order to foster “brain circulation,” as well as increasing employability by ensuring a technologically literate workforce and harnessing the talents of women, older workers and immigrants.