Globalisation's Challenges are Multiplying

"Globalisation has reduced the bargaining power of unskilled workers and pushed up inequality in many Western countries... the OECD said this week.. urging governments to improve their social safety nets...

The prospect of off-shoring was likely to have increased the vulnerability of jobs and wages in developed countries... (However)... Offshoring, where companies reallocate production or services to cheaper places, was not as big a job-killer in OECD countries as believed... (as) it is not the preserve of 'Anglo-Saxon' economies such as the UK and the US...

"Millions are benefiting from globalisation but at the same time, there's a feeling that something's wrong with the process," said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria...

The report pointed to a 'remarkable' fall in the share of wages of national income in OECD member countries in the past decade... Also rising wage inequality...

The OECD urges governments to resist protectionist responses and instead adapt employment policies to help people move from one job to another with greater ease and sense of security.

"The job for life is dead... In order to reap the benefits of globalisation, you have to move. People have to move into new areas... The thing now is to protect people, but not protect jobs, because some jobs have no future."

- 'Globalisation's Challenges are Multiplying,' Ashley Seager, The Guardian
Taipei Times, June 22, p.9