Labour Market Trends

Downsizing

• Businesses are downsizing to improve productivity and competitiveness.
• Businesses can downsize by contracting out or outsourcing work normally done by their own employees.

Self-Employment

• The loss of work from the manufacturing sector, the introduction of new technology and the downsizing of businesses has created a tendency towards self-employment.
• There is government assistance available for people to start a business if they qualify.

Contract work

Employers are increasingly prone to hiring employees under fixed term contracts e.g. one year. This gives employers more flexibility to shape the work force when economic conditions are changing.

Training and education

A university education is more commonplace than 30 years ago. University graduates face stronger competition for jobs.

Workers need to return to training and education more frequently during their careers. As technology changes, workers have to be updated. Retraining is required when changing careers.

Working from home

Information technology has made it possible for many people to work from home and still be tied into the business computer network. Woirking from home has advantages for both employer and employee.