World – Lifelong learning considered to increase employment

By memberservices@staffingindustry.com (Danny Romero)

In order to retain and increase employability, 86% of the global respondents say that they need to keep learning, according to the latest Randstad Workmonitor.

The Workmonitor, which covers 33 countries around the world, showed that overall, on average, the percentages of those who consider lifelong learning essential reach between 80% and 95% with the highest figure in Mexico (97%) and the lowest in Sweden at 39%.

“These results are really staggering,” Ola Eriksson, Head of Marketing Randstad Sweden, said. “Unemployment in Sweden is not that low. So, my best guess would be that people might underestimate that the world is changing and consequently different skills are needed.”

The data from Randstad also showed that unemployment is considered to be undesirable as 88% of global respondents say that unemployed people must be retrained to fill empty positions due to labor scarcity and 89% would be willing to be retrained themselves to avoid unemployment. In addition, 42% of the respondents worldwide would accept a lower salary or a demotion in order to remain employed

Furthermore, respondents in the UK (64%) are more willing to accept lower salary or demotion than people in Mexico and Chile (both 21%). The number of people that would accept a temporary contract to remain employed is 80% globally, with the highest at 92% in Brazil and lowest at 58% in Japan.

When asked for their expectation that certain jobs will become hard to fill in their country, 69% of the global respondents think this will happen. Respondents from Poland have the highest expectation (85%) and people from Switzerland the lowest (59%).

In order to fill vacancies that cannot be filled with domestic employees, 59% of the global respondents agree that it must be possible to attract people from abroad. Meanwhile, to get a job that’s not available in their own country, 55% globally would be willing to move temporarily abroad.

The report also showed that the majority of the respondents – globally 73% – think that a so-called ‘job-for-life’ has become extinct. The highest score is in Portugal, where 86% think so and the lowest score is in Luxembourg with 53%.

Randstad’s mobility index for the second quarter, showed that fewer employees worldwide expect to be employed elsewhere in the coming six months than they did in the previous quarter causing the Mobility Index to decrease to 109. Mobility is highest in Spain, China, and Norway (+5) and the Netherlands (+4). Mobility is the lowest in India (-6), France and the US (-5), and Austria and Hong Kong (-4).

Source:: World – Lifelong learning considered to increase employment