Here are the most and least competitive labor markets in the world

According to new research by Verisk Maplecroft, the British risk analytics company, Italy, France, and Belgium are the least competitive labor markets in the world.

Meanwhile, Djibouti, Myanmar, and Bangladesh are the most competitive.

Verisk Maplecroft arrived at these rankings by comparing labor costs to productivity per employee.

Here are the 10 least competitive labor markets, according to Verisk Maplecroft's research:

1. Italy
2. France
3. Belgium
4. Spain
5. Finland
6. Slovenia
7. Luxembourg
8. Austria
9. Iceland
10. Greece

Compare that with the five most competitive markets:

1. Djibouti
2. Myanmar
3. Bangladesh
4. Cambodia
5. Brunei

The notion of "most" and "least" competitive labor markets in this case may seem counterintuitive. Italy and its European peers are seen as uncompetitive because of how expensive it is to employ people there, due to the high wages, strong unions, and large severance packages. In this way, the market is competitive for employees within these countries, but not for firms that might be interested in doing business there.

Verisk Maplecroft senior analyst Charles van Caloen tells Business Insider that Denmark and Germany perform well in the index despite having very high nominal wages because they have high levels of productivity and less burdensome labor regulations than many other high-income European countries. The US, for the record, is ranked No. 17.

African and South Asian countries have little in the way of labor protections, making them very cheap to manufacture in but often dangerous to workers, as headlines of factory collapses attest.

"Indirect costs of association with human rights violations, such as child labor, can include weakened brand equity and reduced sales," says Verisk Maplecroft human rights specialist John Thompson. If a company runs into human rights violations, Thompson says, it can lose customers, potential investors, and partners.