Global workforce

The global economic factors driving the rise of multinational corporations—namely, cross-border movement of goods, services, technology and capital—are changing ways of thinking about labor and the structure of today's workforce.

The global supply of labor almost doubled in absolute numbers between the 1980s and early 2000s, with half of that growth coming from Asia.

The growing pool of global labor is accessed by employers in more advanced economies through various methods, including imports of goods, offshoring of production, and immigration.

By 2008 foreign-born workers accounted for 17 percent of all STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) positions in the United States.

In wealthier countries with more advanced economies, fewer people die from communicable diseases and, overall, life expectancies are much longer while birth rates are lower.

The youngest populations, primarily those in Southeast Asia and Africa, are those in which overall life expectancies are lower—many children and some adults still die from communicable diseases—but the birth rate is also high.

Traditionally, this has been described in terms of push and pull forces that drive migrant workers and immigrant laborers toward more developed countries.

A high dependency ratio can cause serious problems for a country if a large proportion of a government's expenditure is on health, social security & education, which are most used by the youngest and the oldest in a population.

This, along with the effects of the Great Recession, could mean that downward pressure on wages and compensation, particularly in more advanced economies, will continue for the foreseeable future.

One potential outcome of widespread global labor arbitrage, then, is exploitation and even death of workers in countries that have the fewest protections.

Another potential outcome is an undermining of the protections that are already in place in some countries; that is, a pressure to lower domestic and, ultimately, international labor standards.

Some observe that a growing number of multinationals, especially from wealthier areas, are starting to see the benefits of keeping more of their operations close to home.

The benefits of global labor arbitrage may disappear, particularly in basic manufacturing and especially in China, where wages have been rising the fastest.