Feminising the workforce in ageing East Asia? The potential of skilled female labour in four advanced economies

Abstract

The populations of Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore are ageing rapidly, triggering fears of labour shortages. In spite of the widely acknowledged importance of worker's skill levels, traditional labour supply projections do not account for ongoing changes in populations' education composition and educational differentials in economic activity. By focusing on the role of educational expansion in general and female labour potential in particular, this study analyses past trends and projects future labour supply in four advanced Asian economies. We first offer an indepth overview of developments of labour force participation, emphasising each country-specific context. We then provide selected scenarios of labour force projections up to 2050 which consider changing population compositions by education and differentials in labour participation patterns.We find that due to continued improvements in education, post-secondary educated workers will make up at least two-thirds of the future labour force in each economy. If female labour force participation saw increases in line with the assumptions of our benchmark scenario, the share of post-secondary educated women could exceed 30% of the entire workforce by 2050. Hence, the pressing problem of labour shrinkage could partly be offset by particularly incorporating bettereducated women. Our findings underscore the effects of different participation scenarios (especially of women) on the total size of the labour force and the importance of including the education dimension in considerations about future labour supply. While we are not the first to make the latter argument, we are the first to quantify this potential for the analysed four advanced Asian economies.

Women-friendly human resource management practices and organisational commitment amongst female professionals

“…The study further concludes that female employees are a valuable organisational resource upon which a firm's competitiveness and sustainable growth can be built. Loichinger and Cheng (2018) hold the view that employing better-educated women in the workplace also comes handy in countries where there is a pressing problem of labour shrinkage because of the ageing population.…”

“…In support, Loichinger and Cheng (2018) opines that women are a necessity in the workplace, especially in countries where there is a persistent problem of labour shrinkage because of the ageing population. To this end, this study contends that it is important to have a nuanced understanding of the drivers of the professional female employees' commitment in the workplace to allow firms to effectively retain their much-needed diverse skills.…”

Using health and safety monitoring routines to enhance sustainable employability

“…As the workforce ages in many parts of the world including Europe [ 1 ], United States [ 2 ], Australia [ 3 ], and East Asia [ 4 ], the importance of sustainable employability is growing. Organizations, aware of these changes, have focused not only on preventing unsafe or unhealthy work practices, within a risk management model, but also on enhancing the positive aspects of work [ 5 ].…”