The population growth in the Nordic countries is too low to compensate for the fact that fewer and fewer younger people in the future will have to support an increasing number of older people.

Therefore, there is a need to attract and retain foreign workers. The challenge is to do it in practice.

This was precisely the problem the Nordic Council of Ministers focused on at a conference on the challenges of international recruitment on 3 May.

The conference is part of the programme of the Danish Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers and was organised by the Danish Ministry of Employment.

Denmark is staking much on recruiting foreign workers.

So, in the middle of April 2010, the Danish government took three new initiatives covering, amongst other things, the Ministry of Employment's area, which will facilitate the recruitment of foreign labour.

The Nordic Council of Ministers have also published the report Recruiting skilled workers from third countries to the Nordic Region, which concludes that the Nordic markets are opening up more and more to manpower from outside.

"The projected demographic changes and the consequent shortage of labour is one of the main reasons behind this development. Paradoxically, this happened just before the outbreak of the financial crisis and the subsequent rise in unemployment," according to the report.

The Nordic Labour Journalhas also taken up "The hunt for highly skilled workers" in its May issue.

It concludes, among other things, that a good working environment and good social systems are the most important incentive in the global job centre.

In other words, the sharp brains are in high demand on the international job exchange - but can the Nordic countries take part in the competition? This is examined broadly in these publications and activities.

Michael Funch
Phone +45 33960332
Email mifu@norden.org