. SEEDTABLE

October 11th | #46

This week in Europe: Broken mobility is breaking the European job market

By Karoli Hindriks

“This is a disaster,” Ilkka Paananen, CEO of the $10.2bn gaming company Supercell, recently said about the immigration process in his native Finland.

This is just a single example, one from a country ranked #1 in the latest EU Digital Economy and Society Index, no less. Not just in Finland, but for most of Europe – talent immigration is a disaster. To listen to European politicians boast about the importance of the digital economy, or how their countries are investing in becoming the next big hub for tech, is like talking to all the well-intentioned people who buy gym memberships on January 1st, but then never even make it past the locker room.

For all the European politicians and policymakers out there with grand economic visions but wary of making changes to immigration policy, newsflash: without talent, your countries can never become big tech hubs. Every barrier that you place in the path of companies hiring smart people is a barrier in the path of developing a thriving digital economy. Hell, it’s a hit against your economy as a whole. It is not just the tech industry that’s clamouring for talent. Whether in tech or in more traditional industries, if a company cannot hire fast enough, it cannot survive in a competitive global marketplace. If the legislation you pass is hostile to business, they will know what is good for them and will leave your country as soon as they reach the growth phase.

Not to rain on your parade even more, but Europe has entered the biggest global race for talent that our world has ever seen. According to Korn Ferry, the global talent shortage will cost the world economy $8.5tn dollars by 2030. Japan alone will need to add 18mn people to its workforce just to maintain current levels of income. Never mind any growth. This is the kind of global competition we are talking about. And how is the European Union supposed to survive, let alone thrive, without making changes to its immigration policy?

"When politicians think about how to address these mismatches, immigration is often an afterthought."

EURACTIV reports that, according to the OECD Skills for Jobs Database, at least 80mn workers in Europe are mismatched in terms of qualifications. EUROCHAMBRES President Christoph Leitl ...