The labour costs/skills couple and the weight of industry

In this Flash we are testing the following idea: it is the labour costs/skills couple that determines a country's ability to maintain a large industry. For example, a country with high labour costs can have a large industry if labour force skills are as high, but not if they are low. Comparing OECD countries, we see that three countries have high labour costs and low skills: the United States, France and Italy, and all three countries do have a deindustrialisation problem. Eight countries have high labour costs but high skills: Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Austria, Australia, Germany, Denmark, Belgium.