Labor markets in advanced economies are exceptionally tight. This tightness isn’t the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic but rather a sustained trend driven by aging workforces and increased labor demand. The mismatch between available jobs and workers comes at a cost: The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that GDP in 2023 could have been 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent higher across the economies we examined if employers had been able to fill all their job vacancies. To shed light on this trend, MGI hosted a virtual event on the themes of a new report, Help wanted: Charting the challenge of tight labor markets in advanced economies, as well as other recent MGI research.
The webcast featured a presentation on the research findings by report author Anu Madgavkar, followed by a panel discussion moderated by Olivia White with:
- David Autor, Daniel (1972) and Gail Rubinfeld Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Sir Christopher Pissarides, Nobel laureate and Regius Professor of Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science
The panel discussed labor market tightening trends across countries and sectors, the productivity imperative, the challenge of reskilling the workforce, and actions employers and policymakers can take to boost labor supply and productivity, including adoption of AI and automation.
For more on this topic, please watch the virtual event recording and read our related research including: