Besides the size of available manpower, skilled labor depended on industry location, technical training, and education. Manpower, more abundant and youthful in the Asian Republics, was predominantly unskilled and part of the agricultural sector. The proportion of males in the population was less than the number of females, but more likely to comprise the skilled labor sector. Thus, an imbalance in the male to female ratio had important consequences for productivity. Male mortality rates were higher in the European Republics, as well as three-and-one-half times higher than female rates, compounding the scarcity of skilled labor, for an estimated two million unfilled industrial jobs (Feshbach 1982c; 1985b; Moscow Executive Committee, 1991).