The global market for labor is changing in unprecedented ways. In developed markets, such as the United States and Western Europe, executives face a rapidly aging workforce and high labor costs. Meanwhile, executives in China, India, and much of the rest of the developing world increasingly encounter want amid plenty as a shortage of suitable candidates and the changes associated with the staggering pace of economic growth make it difficult for companies to attract—and retain—enough qualified workers.

Jeffrey A. Joerres, the president and CEO of Manpower since 1999 and its chairman as well since 2001, has a rare vantage point on these and other issues affecting the global workplace. With revenues of nearly $15 billion in 2004, Manpower is the world's second-largest provider of employment services, placing some two million workers a year into professional, industrial, and office positions with companies in 72 countries. Moreover, since 2003 Manpower's permanent-placement division has doubled in size. Through four acquisitions since 2000 (including the purchase of the permanent-placement operations of India's ABC Consultants, in October 2005), Joerres has guided the expansion of the company's employee-assessment, recruiting, and training services, as well as the addition of outplacement, organizational-consulting, and internal-auditing services (exhibit). In May...