Swedish Short-Term Human Resource Forecasting Model

- Cobb-Douglas production function method


- RAS method


- MRP method


1.6.3. Sweden's experience in human resource forecasting


Short-term occupational forecasting in Sweden is based primarily on assessments by employment offices (public employment offices in Sweden). About 200 occupations are surveyed twice a year. Employment offices assess the demand for each occupation as: i) Increase (low increase or high increase), ii) No change or iii) Decrease (small or large decrease) in the coming year.

Assessment is carried out at the following levels: i) Major labour shortage,

ii) Small labor shortage, iii) Balance, iv) Small labor surplus and v) Large labor surplus.

There are about 400 employment offices in Sweden, each of which is responsible for assessing occupations for the following year. This means that about 400 occupations are listed on the National Labour Market Bulletin. A “shortage coefficient” is calculated based on these figures.

The calculation is performed at the following levels:


Labor demand status

Code

Missing a lot

5

Lack of a little

4

Enough

3

Little surplus

2

Surplus

1

Maybe you are interested!


Figure 1.7. Sweden's short-term human resource forecasting model


Source: Nguyen The Ha (2011): "Forecasting Vietnam's labor market, models and forecast results to 2020"

All the data for each occupation are summed and averaged for the surveyed establishments (hereinafter referred to as enterprises). This average value reflects the general shortage of the whole country according to each occupational classification. Based on the need for additional labor, a “Job Chart” is built reflecting the distribution of labor by occupational group, or details by occupation within each group as well as changes in labor demand through a chart called “Occupational Barometer”. This “Occupational Chart” has been operating well due to its simplicity. This tool is the product of experts in the national labor market management system related to occupational aspects and is also a valuable tool for training in labor market planning.

However, a lot of information is needed to make occupational predictions, although “Occupational Charts” can provide valuable information and can be used to

for planning purposes. It is useful to know how many people are leaving their jobs for retirement or other reasons; and also how many people are currently training for a particular occupation. Many countries do not have such statistics, and even Sweden does not have sufficient data. Statistics on the number of workers in a particular occupation are needed, and these should be broken down by training sector (usually at one-year intervals). There should also be adequate training statistics by occupation, as well as unemployment statistics (including labour market policy programmes) for each occupation and vacancy statistics by occupation. These statistics are not always available, but if priority is given to the possibility of graphical representation of employment, unemployment and training for each occupation, the possibility of displaying them graphically should be considered.

Like economic forecasting, occupational forecasting needs to be closely linked to social partners. Employers’ organisations and trade unions have insights, not just on the occupational side. What is important is an understanding of the changing occupations and whether the occupational names are inappropriate in certain cases – that seems to be a bigger question than what skills are needed. However, there is a lot of interest in occupational forecasting from the public, journalists, education planners, etc.

Data conditions


Micro data: First of all, to be able to apply the Swedish model, it is necessary to have a database from annual or periodic surveys (every 2 years). The basic content of this survey is aimed at the labor force used by occupation (with a unified national occupational code in the long term) and the assessment of enterprises on the current labor balance with jobs (shortage, surplus). Depending on the division of sectors and occupations of each country, the occupations are

Divide into groups according to different criteria. The most important division is by training code.

In surveys, it is also necessary to clearly distinguish between training occupations and occupations according to work (in fact, Vietnam has two codes that are easily confusing). Whether or not labor is used in the right occupation must be assessed through the training objectives of each occupation (according to specific expertise and the level of that expertise). Therefore, people are also interested in the status of workers according to the division of functions in socio-economic activities. In addition, it is necessary to combine surveys with workers themselves about the needs for training work, career change, etc.

Macro data: In order for businesses to have a more complete reference to the environment, policies and strategies for socio-economic development in order to have a correct estimate of labor demand, it is necessary to provide macro data and data compiled from previous surveys. These data may be related to growth, state and private investment, import-export policies and the results of implementing plans of previous units. This data is needed to conduct interviews related to the need to add or reduce labor.

The research team of the National Center for Labor Market Forecasting and Information has used the Swedish forecasting model to test for Hai Duong, calculated and built a part of the output of the Swedish model according to the following principle diagram, however, it has only stopped at building the model and collecting data for the model:


List of level 2 occupations


Information from business survey


Level 3 profession

Level 3 profession

Level 3 profession

+ Job description

+ Wind and rain give career

During the period

Next time

Total number of employees

Number of additional vacancies

Identify 14 occupational groups


Figure 1.8. Swedish human resource forecasting model (applied to Hai Duong province)

1.6.4. Human resource forecasting experience of some other countries


Some developed countries have agencies that carry out the function of forecasting education and human resource needs. Below is an overview of the experiences of some other countries in carrying out the work of forecasting education and human resource needs:

Alberta's labor supply and demand forecasting model (Canada) : The Alberta Department of Employment, Immigration and Industry annually develops the Occupational Demand Outlook Model. The development of this model began in 2000, and since 2003, the Occupational Supply Outlook Model has been developed. According to Le Dong Phuong [71], this occupational demand forecasting model predicts the development of 140 occupations in

14 economic sectors (industries) over a period of 5 years. Information is provided by occupation and by year, calculated as a proportion of the labour market. Information provided for each occupation includes: i) the number of people working in that industry; ii) the annual change rate; iii) the proportion of the labour market. Forecasts are calculated for the whole province of Alberta and 8 economic regions within the province. Based on the forecasts, some comments on the labour areas that may have labour shortages, creating a basis for learners to make appropriate choices about their majors, or employers to find measures to attract workers to their occupations.

After having forecasts on supply and demand, the ratio of the difference between supply and demand will be calculated to indicate the imbalance in the labor market. If the supply/demand ratio is less than 1, it may signal a labor shortage, and if it is greater than 1, it will indicate a surplus on the supply side. To make forecasts, the forecasting agency also makes its own comments on the general development of education. These comments are made on the basis of historical data series on education development.

In Australia , labour demand is mainly forecasted based on employer recruitment surveys and tertiary demand forecasts are based on analysis of enrolment data, factors influencing tertiary demand and demographics. Monash University uses a Consolidated General Equilibrium (CGE) labour market forecasting approach. The model represents the relationship between highly detailed macroeconomic variables of the Australian economy, which is used as the basis for the labour force forecasting process. The result is a forecast covering 112 sectors and 340 different occupations, conducted every 4 years.

In New Zealand , forecasts on labor demand and supply or human resources are based on standard occupational classification, classification of training sectors and specialties, economic classification... Forecasts on labor demand and labor training are conducted by state agencies and publicly announced for individuals and organizations to easily access and look up.

In Singapore , the demand for labor is forecasted based on the 2005 economic classification of Singapore and universities are not subject to the training quota division of the Singapore Ministry of Education but develop their own enrollment plans based on the school's training capacity and actual labor demand.

Currently, no ASEAN country has a complete national human resource forecasting model. In some countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia ... there are forecasting models, but they are not widely used as in developing countries.

1.6.5. Lessons for Vietnam's human resource forecasting


In forecasting labor supply and demand, the experience of other countries has shown that after forecasting the demand for jobs by economic sector and by occupation (based on the occupational list), an additional forecasting layer is often carried out: forecasting the labor market by level and training group, in which: (1) on the supply side is the number of workers (total and classified by level, training group) willing to work with a certain salary and working conditions; the labor force supply is the number of people who have graduated at different levels of training and are willing to work (looking for jobs); (2) on the demand side is the demand for employees and workers (can be collectively called workers) in a specific labor market (for example, construction or banking) and also needs to be classified by type of occupation, level and training sector. This is a very important step to have scientific bases in planning education and training policies in accordance with the needs of the labor market, avoiding unreasonable supply and demand, wasting both monetary costs and opportunity costs of society.

Depending on the purpose of using forecast results in policy making and the specific characteristics of socio-economic conditions, the organization and structure of the economy, etc., the models are built in different ways. However, we can find many similarities between the above forecast models on labor demand in general.

and the need for trained labor in particular. Common points that can be drawn include:

(1) In essence, the above models are all based on and provide forecasts of labor demand by economic sector and occupational field. The economic sector is an important starting point for forecasting labor demand for that sector and the basis for considering forecasts of demand for the entire economy;

(2) Economic development and labor demand are affected by many factors. All countries agree that it is impossible to include all factors in a specific model. In practice, solving this problem requires making assumptions and the construction of assumptions must be done carefully. It is best to build a forecasting model based on each country's own economy; in the case of "importing" a model from another economy, it is necessary to adjust and make it suitable for the economy of the country applying that model;

(3) There are many ways to calculate the employment coefficient, but the most common way that countries have used to calculate is through the production function. Of course, each country will choose the form of function to use;

(4) The employment matrix by economic sector and occupational type depends on the economic sector and occupational classification, and the level of occupational detail also depends on the available statistical data. Usually, models consider the additional costs of data collection and processing when opening up more levels of the matrix.

(5) For forecasting the demand for college and university-level human resources in Vietnam, it is possible to apply the implementation steps of the BLS model. However, because the BLS model only stops at forecasting the demand for jobs and jobs by industry, it is necessary to continue forecasting jobs by training level to determine the demand for human resources training. And so, the proposed steps for forecasting college and university-level human resources in Vietnam are as follows:

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