Policy Hub
On 18 March 2009, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published a paper which seeks to provide an overview of policies and issues related to the management of highly skilled labour migration.
The paper notes that most OECD countries expect growing shortages of highly skilled labour in the coming two decades. Immigration is viewed as one way of addressing these shortages.
The paper outlines the two principal ways of recruiting highly skilled workers from abroad (demand-driven and supply-driven) and considers the consequences of both approaches.
It concludes that the effects of demographic change are only just beginning to be felt in most countries. The paper forecasts that by 2010 more than half of all OECD countries will show incoming labour force cohorts which are smaller than outgoing ones.
As such, the objective over the medium term is for OECD countries to ensure that the required policies are in place to ensure the right scale and nature of migration to satisfy labour market needs.