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Overview

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Project Objectives

  • To assess skill shortages of the labour market and how well needs match with skill levels of immigrants
  • To examine migration skill corridors for emerging and established skill and talent partnerships; analyse skills education and training in origin countries, and their recognition in destination countries; examine patterns of skilled migration and retention at the destination country.
  • To create an AI-Assisted Skill Navigator fed with skill shortage assessments, skill opportunity structures in the origin countries, and the enablers and barriers to skill migration corridors between the origin and destination countries.
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Background

There are significant labour market changes and emerging skill shortages in destination countries such as Canada, Germany, Poland, Netherlands and Austria. On the supply side, countries are experiencing shortages due to an ageing and shrinking population and low levels of skill upgrading over the lifetime. On the demand side, new emerging types of jobs, such as the rapid growth of green jobs, require entirely new skills sets and knowledge.     

Over recent years skills shortages have been widely reported in all destination countries of this study; yet, at the same time, there are many capable individuals in the job market whose skills are not fairly recognized, especially women and migrants. Matching the needs of the market with the supply has be piecemeal and ineffective. New measurement and analysis tools are needed that can help countries better understand skill demand and supply so they can adapt migration governance accordingly.

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Research questions

  1. How can existing and emerging skill gaps be identified in a changing labour market, and how should the countries addressed in this study respond?
  2. What tools can be developed to help match skill gaps with workers from the existing workforce (including established migrant populations and inactive women) and foreign workers from third countries?
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Outcomes

Upon completion, this project will: 

  • Enhance migration governance by drawing on the analyses of skills shortages in the EU and in non-EU countries
  • Provide decision-makers with tools to navigate skill shortages in EU labour markets
  • Present an overview of the trade-offs between filling shortages with temporary migrant workers or investing in other alternatives such as education and upskilling