중소제조업에서 인력부족인가 숙련부족인가? -증상들과 측정에 관한 탐색적 사례조사-

In order to find which one, labor shortage or skills shortage, is more relevant to explain the workforce problem, this study investigates their symptoms and measurement by an exploratory case study of eight manufacturing SMEs. By a literature review I draw a research framework on their symptoms and measurement composed of increasing use of overtime, increasing recruiting efforts, lowering minimum qualification for the jobs, outsourcing, improving working conditions and organizational culture, improving fringe benefits, increasing wage, and reducing production volume. The results indicate that there are only a few employers with unfilled vacancy. However, It lasted a long time to fill new employees, and there are very high proportions of elderly job applicants, contract workers through private employment agencies and foreign workers. I also found that more than a half of the sampled employers suffer from skills shortage even with little labor shortage, especially for core high-skilled technician jobs, indicating that skills shortage is more relevant to explain the shortage issue in the manufacturing SMEs. Even with skills shortage, it is rarely found to improve working conditions and to reduce production volume. Finally I outline the results, discuss practical implications and how to construct measurement for skills shortage.