Final answer:
Outsourcing and offshoring are significant external labour market trends that job market planners should consider, as these practices lead to job displacement in developed countries and affect the global employment landscape, with the Covid-19 pandemic worsening their impact.
Step-by-step explanation:
An external labour market trend that planners should examine is the increasing use of outsourcing and offshoring. Outsourcing refers to the practice of hiring outside contractors, sometimes abroad, to perform tasks a company once performed internally. Offshoring, on the other hand, is the process of moving some of a company's operations overseas to access cheaper labor markets. This trend has significant implications for employment patterns in developed countries, which have experienced increased unemployment as jobs, especially those in the manufacturing and service industries, move to developing countries. Companies look to reduce costs and increase competitiveness but face the risk of eroding support for globalization if new job opportunities are not created domestically.
Furthermore, this shift affects the labour supply and demand, leading to depreciating labor skills, an oversupply of unemployed youth, and complications in connecting new workers to jobs, especially within large urban concentrations. In addition to this, external events like the Covid-19 pandemic have exacerbated these trends, leading to concerns that an entire generation could potentially be left behind due to the recession's impact on employability and income.