Labour shortage to hit global recovery, says top economist

Global asset manager’s expert says pre-pandemic tightness in labour markets has been exacerbated by enhanced Covid-era unemployment supports

Markus Schomer, the US-based economist, said there was already a tightness in labour markets before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Picture: Pinebridge Investments

The shortage in labour will constrain the global economic recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic, a leading economist has said.

“We’re seeing labour shortages in every sector of the global economy right now,” Markus Schomer, chief economist with PineBridge Investments, a $133 billion global asset manager, told the Business Post.

“Wage supports being paid by governments are certainly fuelling this. In the US there are more advertised job openings than there are unemployed. And the situation ...