To strengthen industrial competitiveness and productivity, the digital transformation is necessary. In addition, new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robots and big data, among others, create new industries and are poised to increase demand for high-skilled workers. The Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) predicts that demand for Industrial Technology Labor Force (ITL) workers will increase by 155,000 workers in five new industries by 2029. These industries include: new ferrous materials (demand for 29,000 new workers projected), advanced chemicals (39,000 workers), high-tech textile materials (23,000 workers), next-generation semiconductors (51,000 workers), and next-generation ceramics (11,000 workers). The shortage rate for ITL workers with at least a high school diploma is 1.2 percent. For workers with at least two years of college, the shortage rate is 1.5 percent. For workers with a university diploma, the rate is 3.3 percent. There is an ITL shortage rate of 4.2 percent for workers with postgraduate degrees. The supply and demand for high-skilled labor is related to the labor input in the production function. A shortage of high-skilled labor leads to inefficiencies in labor input in production function, negatively affecting firm productivity and competitiveness and are an obstacle to the growth of new industries. Most of domestic and global leading firms are looking to hire ITL to increase their productivity and competitiveness in the global economy. For example, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have expanded the hiring of high-skilled labor in the semiconductor sector. In addition, GE and Siemens launched aggressive recruitment campaigns to hire thousands of software developers each. For example, Siemens recently brought on 24,500 software engineers, while Bosch took on 15,000, with 3,000 workers to focus on IoT issues alone. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to forecast demand for high-skilled workers because the in-demand skills and the required level of an advanced workforce is organically changing due to the digital transformation of the industrial structure, featuring the emergence of new industries and industrial convergence. This is accelerating with technological change. Moreover, it makes the return on educational investment from a worker’s perspective more uncertain, reducing the incentive to participate in education and training programs to learn new skills and competencies. So the supply of highskilled labor could be less than the optimal level in the market. To solve market failures caused by uncertainties by demands of high-skilled worker and returns of education, an industrial workforce policy is necessary. Actually, many countries are implementing industrial workforce policies to stabilize supply and demand for high-skilled workers
