The coronavirus pandemic acted like a magnifying glass on all the economic weaknesses in our system. Global supply chains collapsed overnight and have still not recovered. Coming from a merciless oversupply, we suddenly had to wait three months for mundane things like a garden chair. Not to mention the epic delivery times for new cars.
And now, in the post-corona period, we are getting a glimpse of the future of the labor market, when there is a shortage of staff in all service areas, such as restaurants and airports.
And even if you frown and wonder where all the workers have gone, there will be more people in employment in 2022 than ever before.
Demographic change exacerbates skills shortage
Demographic change is now hitting with full force, as the baby boom generation is slowly but surely entering retirement. By 2030, the group of 20 to 64-year-olds will shrink by almost 3.8 million people. By comparison, this group grew by 700,000 people between 2010 and 2020. If you look to the south of Europe, for example to Italy, the situation looks even more dramatic. Here it is expected that by 2050 there will be a shortfall of five million inhabitants (which is just under 10% of the total population). At the same time, the number of 90-year-olds will rise from 800,000 today to 1.7 million.
These figures alone show the challenges we will face in the future, because the most important resource (and this term is an insult to a living being per se) in our well-oiled economic machinery is running out: the human being.
But how can companies prepare for the future?
