Shortages of “skilled” and “unskilled” labour are continuously increasing in most regions and localities across Europe. This is now taking on a different character. Previous developments in regional and local labour markets followed business cycles, allowing the shortages of “skilled” employees to relax and lessen within short periods. Now the signs are pointing to an everincreasing shortage of “skilled” labour. Even among “unskilled” labour the shortage of workers has risen and is constantly increasing. The resulting problem is quantitative in nature as, due to demographic developments in most European states, more employees are leaving working life due to age than young individuals are entering employment. This results in a steadily shrinking potential of labour.