Much is said about "new skills for work". They are the ones employers look for in everchanging industries and get updated almost at the same rate as our smartphones get updated. That was the metaphor that a colleague at IDB's Labor Markets Division used when he invited me to think about workers' skills development in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Climate change is one of humanity’s greatest challenges and is driving the entire world towards economic transformation.
It’s been proven that an efficient response of the workforce to the human capital needs of the economy boosts labor productivity and, as a consequence, economic growth.
Countries worldwide all vie to attract inward investment based on their competitive and comparative advantages in various sectors. Few countries stand out however in how they use skills as a key incentive to get foreign direct investment – Singapore and Ireland for example. Developing countries, however, tend to focus their efforts mainly on “creating” an ecosystem that appeals to investors. This usually translates into incentives, tax breaks, incubators to set up initial operations with little attention if any, paid to the skills requirements.
The aging process of the population in Latin America and the Caribbean will only accelerate in the coming decades. We will need to revise the retirement age in our countries in line with demographic change to guarantee reasonable retirement amounts and the financial sustainability of pensions.
One of the great dilemmas facing countries around the world is to define a pension system that is financially sustainable in the face of increasing life expectancy, falling fertility rates and the consequent lack of generational replacement.
It is at work that one finds true happiness.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Latin America and the Caribbean is on its way to becoming an “aged” region. United Nations population projections leave no room for doubt: in the coming decades, the region will face a scenario of low birth rates and increasing longevity, which will put pension systems at risk. By 2050, the region's population structure will no longer be shaped like a pyramid but like a column, and around 2060, the low fertility rate will cause the population to stop growing and even decline.
We often hear of labor migration as a problem. Some media outlets only portray the most tragic face of immigration, while politicians of all ideologies use this issue as a weapon to provoke confrontation and get attention from the public. It is true that, if mismanaged, labor migration may become a source of exploitation of workers, inequality and poverty.