Thinking Globally

Week 10
HRM 1000
What is
labour?
• All individuals who work for gain,
whether as employees, employers,
or as self-employed, including the
unemployed who are seeking work.

• Historical: Coerced labour,

involuntary servitude, slave labour,
gang system
• Modern: skilled, unskilled, semi-
skilled, and professional
Labour market
• The supply & demand of labour, where
employees are the supply side and
employers form the demand
• Measures
• Participation rates
• Total income
• Gross domestic product: measure
of market value of all goods &
services sold in a specific period
of time
Countries by GPD and economic industry
Forces on labour
markets
• Domestic & international markets
• Immigration
• Age of the population
• Education levels
Domestic markets
• Balance of government intervention versus free market
forces
International markets
• Economics forces: customs, tariffs,
barriers to trade
• Increased competition
• Increased wages
• Trade deals:
• Increased opportunities
Age of
population
• Japan – 28.2% of the
population is 65+
• Niger – average population
age, 15.2

• Consequences:
• Pension benefits
• Income taxes
• Increased healthcare costs
• Shifts in relative economic
power
Education
levels
• Higher rates of
unemployment
• Higher wages
• Resilience during times of
crisis

• Statistics Canada Table 12-10-

0018-01
Employment
by education
-
international
 What drives the economy in the
country where you were born?

Where What drives the economy in the

we’re country where your parents were
born?
from…
How does this relate to the factors
that drive the labour market?
Me!

Canada Ukraine
• International trade • Agricultural products - In 2021
• Real estate they totaled $27.8 billion,
accounting for 41 percent of the
• Manufacturing country's $68 billion in overall
• Mining exports.
• Oil & gas extraction • Coal, electric power, ferrous and
nonferrous metals, machinery
and transport equipment,
chemicals, food processing
Me - Continued
Quebec

• Maple Syrup

• Hockey

• Poutine
COVID-19 &
global labour
markets
How has
COVID-19
changed things?

• What are the differential

impacts on the varying
parts of the labour
market?
• Think domestically
and globally
 Prolonged downs, differing by industry

Stress on hospital systems

Trends – Closures disrupting supply chains cascading closures in production

industries

during the Operating under uncertainty; unable to predict the future

COVID Uneven vaccination rates, uneven recovery by nation

Struggles within industries: tourism, labour-intensive production

disruption Gender disparity in worker outcomes

Deepening inequality
Trends – into the
future
• Reduced education challenging
the future of work
• More temporary work
• Movement away from global
supply chains due to risk
• Remote work
What have we learned?
• Fragility of employment
• Technology as a game changer
• Flexibility is required
• Inequity is our default
• Employee health is a priority