What’s a labor market analysis?

[ad_1]

Labor market analysis is the economic study of the dynamic relationship between workers and employers in the regional, national or global labor market. It includes a variety of factors, from employment rates to wages, per capita income and education levels. While governments use the practice of labor market analysis to measure the effects of economic policies, it is also often used by business and academia from a human resources perspective, to see how conditions in reference workplaces match those of competing businesses or employers.

One of the primary functions of analyzing the labor market in the for-profit sector is to determine the competitiveness of wages. Market research is conducted by HR departments to determine median salaries and pay scales for positions, as well as additional benefits packages that come with positions such as merit pay and health care coverage. This data is used to guide management in defining wage policies that will help the firm compete for the best staff available in the labor market.

On a larger national or global scale, labor market analysis is an economic sector analysis tool that has a direct effect on the gross domestic product (GDP) of nations and international trade. The field is considered so important that the Nobel Prize in economics in 2010 was awarded to three researchers – Peter A. Diamond, Dale T. Mortenson and Christopher A. Pissarides – for studying the difficulties in the labor market of matching available workers appropriate the positions in a timely manner. Delays in matching jobseekers with jobs, even in good economic times, are known to have a direct impact on the housing market and government social programmes.

Researchers have spent decades analyzing the underlying causes of unemployment in their labor market analysis work. In US government policy, they have found a lack of fiscal stimulus in the labor market, as well as generous unemployment benefits can, in their own way, raise unemployment levels over time. Conversely, in European countries, government policies that restrict firms in terms of hiring and firing have been seen as leading to more stable employment conditions for those with jobs and much longer unemployment for those without jobs. labor relative to the U.S. labor force.

Companies often use strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats formulas or SWOT analyzes to examine their competitiveness and work on these pay scale details to find ways to compete against competitors. Like the use of empirical data by economic researchers in labor market analysis using wages and employment rates, the results are often simplistic and based on an ideal, fictional, centralized market where job seekers and employers meet and pair effortlessly. In many parts of the world, however, such as the developing nations of Pakistan and Tanzania, even though accurate data exist on the causes of unemployment or underemployment, public institutions do not exist or are unable to remedy the situation stair side.

In middle-income nations such as Brazil and South Africa, modernizing and improving the labor market is a nation’s primary means of pulling itself out of poverty. A little-known fact about market segmentation when discussing global labor market analysis is that, in poorer nations, the unemployment rate typically tends to be much lower than that in richer countries. The obvious reason for this is that there are many jobs in developing countries that involve manual labor at very low wages and with poor working conditions. This makes labor market analysis only a small part of a larger national target for developing and middle-income nations. Those nations on a growth path understand the need for basic support for youth education, continuing education opportunities for employees, and loans and financial incentives for small businesses if the country is to chart a better life for most of its citizens.

[ad_2]