Lecture International business (11/e) - Chapter 12: Labor forces

chapter twelve
Labor Forces

McGraw­Hill/Irwin
International Business, 11/e

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw­Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.


Learning Objectives


Identify forces beyond management control that affect the
availability of labor



Explain the reasons that cause people to leave their home
countries



Discuss the reasons that some countries have guest
workers



Explain factors associated with employment policies,
including social roles, gender, race, and minorities.
12-3

Learning Objectives
 Discuss differences in labor unions among
countries

12-4


Labor Quality and Quantity

 Quality, quantity, and composition of labor
force are of great importance to an
employer

 Labor Quality
 The skills, education, and attitudes of

available employees
 Labor Quantity
 The number of available employees with the
skills required to meet an employer’s
business needs

12-5


Worldwide Labor Conditions and
Trends

Overall Size and Sector of the Work
Force
International Labor Trends

Aging of Populations
Rural to Urban Shift
Unemployment
Immigrant Labor
Child Labor
Forced Labor
Brain Drain
Guest Workers

12-6


Primary Occupation of National Labor
Force

Source: (July 25, 2006).

12-7


Aging Of Population

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International,
“Midyear Population, by Age and Sex,”
www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/idbagg (July 27,
2006

12-8


Rural to urban Shift

Source: World Urbanization Prospects: The 2003
Revision (New York: United nations, 2003), pp. 3-4.

12-9


Unemployment
• 192 million overall unemployed
– Middle East and North Africa (13.2%)
– Sub-Saharan Africa (9.7%)
– Central and Eastern Europe (9.7)
– Latin America and Caribbean (7.7)
– Developed economies (6.7%)
– Southeast Asia and the Pacific (6.1%)
– South Asia (4.7%)
– East Asia (3.8%)
12-10


Labor Mobility
 Labor Mobility
 The movement of people from country to country or


area to area to get jobs
Immigration
 Refers to the process of leaving one’s home country to
reside in another country
 Foreign-born
 Population comprises those immigrants whose
move is permanent and may include taking
citizenship
 Foreign
 Population who are guest workers
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Foreign and Foreign-Born Population
in Selected OECD Countries

12-12


Labor
• Child Labor
– The labor of children below 16 years of age
who are forced to work in production and
usually receive little or no formal education
• Primarily found in developing nations
• Existent in developed countries
• 70% is in agriculture

• Forced Labor
– Most common in South and East Asia

12-13


Brain Drain
• Brain Drain
– The loss by a country of its most intelligent and
best-educated people
– Record numbers of immigrants are moving to
OECD countries in search of jobs
– When skilled workers migrate from developing
countries they do so for professional opportunities
and economic reasons

• Reverse Brain Drain
– The growth of outsourcing and the movement of
highly educated, technologically skilled employees
and research scientists to other countries
12-14


Brain Drain: Countries with the Highest
Percentage of Their College-Educated Citizens
Living in Other Countries

12-15


Guest Workers
• People who go to a foreign country legally to
perform certain types of jobs

• Guest workers provide the labor host countries
need
– Guest workers are desirable as long as the
economies are growing
– When economies slow, fewer workers are needed
and problems appear

12-16


Considerations in Employment Policies
• Social Status
– Important with respect to labor force, especially in some
cultures
– Caste: the group to which people belong in a system under
which people’s place or level in a multilevel society is
established at birth as being the same level as that of their
parents

• Sexism
– Acceptability of women as full and equal participants in the
work force ranges widely

12-17


Women’s Education
• Studies show a direct correlation between
women’s education and
– Birthrates

– Child survival rates
– Family health
– A nation’s overall prosperity

12-18


Female Illiteracy

12-19


Ratio of Wages, Woman versus Men,
Selected OECD Countries

12-20


Racism
• Black and White conflict
– U.S., South Africa, Great Britain and
elsewhere

• Arab-, Indian-, or Pakistani and Black
conflict
– Africa

• Tamils and Sinhalese Conflict
– Sri Lanka
12-21

Minorities

 Traditional Societies

 Tribal peoples before they turn to organized
agriculture or industry; traditional customs
may linger after the economy changes

 Minorities

 A relatively smaller number of people

identified by race, religion, or national origin
who live among a larger majority

12-22


Employer-Employee Relationships

 Labor Market

 The pool of available potential employees

with the necessary skills within commuting
distance from an employer
 A company must study the labor market when
considering whether to invest in a country

 Sources include
 Foreign Labor Trends
 Handbook of Labor Statistics
 Yearbook of Labor Statistics
12-23


Country Strike Rates, Selected OECD
Nations

Source: Rachel Beardsmore, "International Comparisons of Labour Disputes in 2004," in Office for
National Statistics (U.K.), Labor Market Trends, April 2006, p. 119, . c Crown
Copyright. Reproduced under the terms of the Click-Use License.

12-24


Labor Unions
• Organizations of workers
• European labor
– Identified with political parties and socialist ideology
• United States labor
– Laborers already have many civil rights
– Collective bargaining
• The process in which a union represents the
interests of a bargaining unit (which sometimes
includes both union members and nonmembers)
in negotiations with management

12-25