Subject Focus: Labor Market Performance

When multinational companies are asked what the most influential factors concerning location decisions are, the availability of qualified labor is regularly one of the most-cited criteria. The importance of this factor is likely to strengthen in the future: the search for appropriate personnel at higher levels may be a key constraint on companies’ growth. This is the result of a number of developments. On the one hand, the demands on employees’ cognitive abilities are increasing, due to the ever quick information flows and faster changes in labor operations. On the other hand, the demand for specific qualifications is increasingly differentiated. From an economic point of view, these developments are compounding matching problems in the labor market: it is becoming increasingly difficult to fill vacancies with suitable candidates. For companies, knowledge of local labor markets has therefore become crucial to location decisions.

The BDO IBC 2015 seeks to address this issue in its Subject Focus which is dedicated to national differences in labor market performance.