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Skills shortage may ease slightly, but it's here to stay

Source: Shortlist

1st December 2008

Despite continuing news of an economic downturn and accelerating job losses, detailed new research from Clarius indicates that a structural skills shortage will sustain demand for candidates.

The inaugural Clarius Skills Index, carried out jointly with KPMG, measures demand for skilled labour on a sliding scale.

It shows that skills shortages began to develop in a range of professional and trades sectors in 2005 and have intensified since then.

Despite the slowdown, the index for the September quarter reached a record high of 103.5. (A score of 100 indicates a balance between labour supply and demand, less than 95 signals a skills surplus, and greater than 105 indicates an extreme skills shortage. The index is calculated by dividing total employment plus skilled vacancies, by total employment plus unemployment.)

This included a score of 102.1 for professionals (including the science, building and engineering, accounting, marketing, ICT, business and information, health and social sectors); 105.9 for associate professionals (medical and science, building, chefs); and 105 for tradespeople (metal, automotive, electrical, construction, food, printing, carpentry and hairdressing).

The occupation with the highest level of skills shortage overall was chefs, the report said, followed by metal-related trades, hairdressers, automotive trades, health professionals, food-related trades, computing professionals, building and engineering professionals, construction trades and printing trades.

The report noted that the economic downturn would serve to take some pressure off the job market in the medium term.

However, it said, "while there will be a reduction in overall labour market tightness, the slowing economy is far from uniform across industry sectors, and skills shortages are likely to persist in some occupations".