In The News

Quartz: US Tightens H1B Visa Process

Ananya Bhattacharya February 23, 2018
Skilled workers applying for the US H1B visa will face more scrutiny. Applicants will be expected to fill specialty roles in a specialty occupation, explains US Citizenship and Immigration Services. “Previously, the adjudicating officers did not have to review third-party contracts or the exact dates and place of third-party work,” reports Ananya Bhattacharya for Quartz. Workers will be required...

The Japan Times: Abe Calls for Foreign Employment Review to Bring in Overseas Skilled Workers

Reiji Yoshida February 21, 2018
Japan, with a low fertility rate, has an aging population and must either rely on foreign workers or do without some services. The number of registered foreign workers has increased from less than 500,000 in 2008 to to 1.28 million in 2017, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government makes plans for to allow more immigration. Cautious about abrupt cultural changes, he called for firm limits...

Project Syndicate: Ending the Business of Child Labor

Kailash Satyarthi November 16, 2017
Child labor is wrong, unnecessary and especially vile when wealthy consumers turn a blind eye to indulge in low-cost goods and services. In 1997, global leaders expressed a deep commitment to ending child labor, explains advocate and Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi, but since then “the world has not even halved the number of children in the workforce.” He estimates that more than 150 million...

Global Finance: US Manufacturing – The Reshoring Is Real, The Jobs Are Not

Craig Mellow October 30, 2017
Companies are relocating production to the developed nations like the United States, but hiring fewer workers. One case study suggests that a single US worker combined with investment in automation can replace seven Chinese workers. The trend has been in place for several years in both the United States and Europe. Craig Mellow, writing for Global Finance, points to four reasons: Labor costs are...

Project Syndicate: The Dangers of Demographic Denial

Adair Turner October 3, 2017
Too many leaders of emerging economies are counting on sizable numbers of young adults to become consumers and fuel growth. But technological advancements could contribute to high rates of unemployment. The term “demographic dividend” is misunderstood, explains Adair Turner for Project Syndicate. “The term was originally used to describe a transition in which countries enjoyed both a one-off...

Thomson Reuters Foundation: Corporations Tackle Forced Labor

Adela Suliman September 14, 2017
The EcoVadis Global Corporate Social Responsibility Risk and Performance Index evaluated corporate social responsibility efforts of more than 20,000 companies and found that human trafficking and forced labor are common in global industries where minimal skills are required, reports Adela Suliman for Thomson Reuters Foundation. The good news is that companies are pursuing transparency and audits...

Economics Wire: 3 Trends Shaping Global Labor Market

August 25, 2017
Technology, culture and globalization are influencing the global labor market, and Economics Wire identifies three trends. First, the internet is connecting more work equipment. More people work from home and other remote locations. Researchers are quickly developing robots and artificial intelligence, putting any task performed by humans under threat. Second, the workday is shrinking – which...