| Abstract: | In the past, aggregative studies and forecasts have dominated manpower planning in developing countries. Such exercises, however, tend to assume away or ignore a host of institutional factors that have far‐reaching influences on the determination of wages and employment and on the efficiency of labour markets. Consequently, this paper argues that disaggregated manpower research, focussed on current problems and conditions in employment markets, would be far more useful to economic development policies than the sort of abstract macro‐planning aimed at forecasts of long‐term manpower requirements which has been highly fashionable during the last decade. The theme of the paper is substantiated with reference to the organization and workings of labour markets in West Malaysia. It is found that institutional and economic factors peculiar to that country have resulted in three ‘insulated’ labour markets, one each for Malays, Chinese and Indians, with practically no mobility of labour across insulated markets, even in widely divergent supply‐demand conditions. The final sections of the paper briefly examine the implications of insulated markets for manpower and economic policies. |
