Global Labor Market, “Re-Shoring” Dynamics, and Skill Mismatch

Abstract

Workers' capabilities and knowledge are factors that a company can use to boost its productivity. The relocation of operational activity away from industrialized nations has led to the erosion of manufacturing skills, and this fact often results in a severe skill shortage in specific local labor markets, becoming much more prominent in the case of re-shoring. Consistent with the transaction cost economics approach (TCE), the purpose of this research was to verify if students possess at least basic skills at the end of their educational path to face the labor market without economic frictions in school-to-work transition. Finally, this chapter presents a model that could be useful in order to design programs aimed to overcome the erosion of manufacturing skills and provide students with skills that companies need to deal with local labor markets successfully.