The Future Leader

7New Talent Landscape

“I often say in my business that the competition for talent is fiercer than the competition for customers.” That's what Jeffrey Puritt told me. He's the president and CEO of TELUS International, an outsourcing and offshoring company with over 30,000 employees globally.

The Massive Talent Shortage

What talent looks like, where it comes from, and how much talent exists are all factors causing a massive change in the collective workforce. According to research done by Korn Ferry, by 2030 there will be a global talent shortage of around 85 million people, which translates into $8.5 trillion in unrealized annual revenues (Korn Ferry, 2018). ManpowerGroup surveyed 40,000 employers around the world and 45% of them reported difficulty in filling roles today (Manpower, 2018). PwC's CEO survey referenced earlier found that in 2019, one of the top-ten threats for organizations was availability of key skills. It was number three on the list, just one percentage point below policy uncertainty and overregulation (PwC, 2019).

There are several reasons for why this is happening. For starters, fertility rates around the world are declining. In the United States, for example, the number of births is below the required replacement rate for the population, meaning the population could actually start shrinking because more people are passing away and not enough babies are ...