ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a detailed account of the seafarer labour market. It first discusses the composition of the global labour market based on available global survey data. Although seafarers, regardless of their nationalities, can work in the international fleet, their employment is also governed by their respective national employment institutional frameworks, which are called ‘national employment regimes.’ Therefore, this chapter also looks into four seafarer labour supplying countries – the Philippines, China, India, and the UK. While the first three are the top ‘new’ seafarer labour suppliers, the UK is the top among traditional maritime countries. Drawing on government statistics and documents, this chapter provides authoritative figures on seafarer labour supply and explains the employment regimes in these countries. As labour supplying countries compete with each other for market share, the chapter also discusses this global competition and its implications for seafarers.
