"In my 30 years experience I have never seen such an incredible shortage of talented people – whether it is in Germany, Brazil, China, India or Kansas." Samuel A. DiPiazza Jr, Global Chief Executive Officer, PricewaterhouseCoopers

"The focus is on training people to be adaptable, flexible and able to change quickly with the times, because it is impossible to predict what we will need in the future." Nandan M. Nilekani, President, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Infosys Technologies

A time bomb relating to work is ticking. Registered world unemployment reached 187.7 million in 2004, according to the International Labour Organization. Over 80 million new jobs will be needed by 2020 to keep the Arab world alone at its current level of 16% unemployment. The entry of so many workers into the global market economy will have a dramatic effect on the worldwide ratio of labour to capital with a consequent downward pressure on wages. This situation can be expected to last for at least 25 years and will require fresh, collaborative ideas to provide solutions.

Business in the developed and developing world could not face more divergent labour markets. "In developed countries, the question is not where the jobs will come from but where will the workers come from," said Donald J. Johnston, Secretary-General, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Paris. Min Zhu, Executive Assistant President, Bank of China, People's Republic of China, has no such problem: "We have to understand that labour is a resource not a burden. So it is labour-intensive manufacturing which makes China a powerhouse in the world with a 10% growth rate."

In developed countries with ageing populations there will clearly be a boom in healthcare employment. Companies which understand the added consequences, such as a sharp boost in the number of people who are time rich and cash poor, will be able to create further jobs. "The implications of people getting older means a complete shift in consumerism as people will buy differently," insisted Sir Digby Jones, Director-General, Confederation of British Industry (CBI), United Kingdom. "Where they go, the need to heat their homes more, and they will want to pay lower prices."

Businesses in the Middle East, however, will only be able to start creating the work needed by tens of millions of Arab youths if, at the very least, there is a far greater regional openness in the trade of goods, services and labour. Ahmed Mahmoud Nazif, Prime Minister of Egypt, for example, needs to create 750,000 jobs a year to keep unemployment at the same levels. "Part of the answer is related to growth, particularly in tourism which is important to Egypt and creates more jobs than industry."

For much of commerce, the way to create new jobs is globalization, although this is being restricted by skill shortages at the white collar level. "In my 30 years experience I have never seen such an incredible shortage of talented people – whether it is in Germany, Brazil, China, India or Kansas," said Samuel A. DiPiazza Jr, Global Chief Executive Officer, PricewaterhouseCoopers, USA. "There is this war for talent and we are not just talking about the top 5%. It is an issue even in countries with good population growth and education."

These skill shortages need to be tackled with increased efforts by business to release underutilized assets into the labour market through improved childcare services, wage equality and greater education opportunities. "We do not have enough urgency about innovation," declared Ben J. Verwaayen, Chief Executive Officer, BT, United Kingdom, "not in the R&D sense, but in terms of job creation, getting women involved, getting minorities involved." The success of such initiatives can provide further new opportunities for employment as unpaid work becomes paid work. "In Scandinavia so many of the workforce are now in employment that a lot of housework has effectively become paid work as others are paid to do it," said Neil Kearney, General Secretary, International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation, Brussels.

Creating new jobs that are needed on the massive scale means that most will have to come from the private sector and will require a fundamental change in attitude to business and public sector support for innovation, entrepreneurship and risk taking. Indices of competitiveness, which look at the cost and difficulties of starting a business in various countries, should be expanded and used to praise the best and "name and shame" the worst nations while examining in depth each country's regulations, the availability of funding, employment, taxation, and the time and cost of starting a new business. Crucially policy-makers should also emphasize the importance of changing mindsets in those countries where entrepreneurial failure is considered unacceptable and which effectively disqualify risk takers from making further attempts.

Educational systems in many countries need overhauling to overcome a fundamental mismatch between the skills taught and the future skills needed. This disparity is increased in developed countries by students' perceptions of what constitute worthwhile occupations. "We have to persuade children that, in the future, getting a vocational degree will be as important as getting a university qualification," insisted David Arkless, Executive Board Member, Manpower, USA. "We need electricians, plumbers, infrastructure workers and higher-level production workers. We have to make these sorts of jobs, which make cities work, look valuable and feel valuable."

At the same time, educational systems will need to become more broad-based so that people find it easier to switch between jobs. "Trying to plan for specific shortages in the long term is not that useful," declared Jagdish Bhagwati, Professor, Columbia University, USA. "Uncertainty comes in no matter how hard you try. You can only make broad statements like skill shortages will happen." This is also the view of Nandan M. Nilekani, President, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Infosys Technologies, India, who finds that college recruits do not have the right skills. "We have our own finishing school to get them ready for our business. The focus is on training people to be adaptable, flexible and able to change quickly with the times, because it is impossible to predict what we will need in the future."

Equally important is that educational systems recognize that 85% of job skills are not specific to a particular task but include work habits, project management, teamwork, communication, time management and punctuality.