Skills Shortages
Skills shortage hurting economy: survey
April 24, 2008 - 4:53PM
The Australian workforce needs another 200,000 full-time employees so skills shortages do not put firms at risk of losing their competitive edge, a report says.
More than two-thirds of firms have suffered over the past year because of the skills shortage, the survey of 492 chief executives by the Australian Industry Group and Deloitte found.
Six out of 10 of these firms in the services, construction and manufacturing sectors blamed skills shortages for restricting innovation.
Australian Industry Group chief executive Heather Ridout, who was also a delegate at last weekend's 2020 Summit in Canberra, said a shortfall in education and training by the public and private sectors was largely responsible for the skills deficit.
"We're paying the price now," she said.
"The number of Australians without qualifications is 50 per cent of the workforce and only 13 per cent of jobs don't require qualifications.
"If we had more people with skills, it would make the situation easier."
The report concluded that 180,000 to 240,000 full-time employees would need to join the workforce to ease skills shortages.
"Skills shortages are also restricting the innovative ability of Australian firms and this places the future competitiveness of many companies at risk," the Skilling For Innovation report said.
Construction and services firms were more likely to be affected by the skills shortage, particularly in the areas of problem solving and adapting to change.
The surveyed firms, which employ a combined 100,000 staff and generate $35 billion in sales revenue between them, said they were finding it hard to recruit technicians and tradespeople.
Australia's jobless rate dropped to a fresh 33-year low of four cent in February in a month when almost 48,000 full-time jobs were created.
The report said companies needed an average 2.4 per cent increase in full-time employment to meet their skill needs.
Smaller firms were more likely to look within the company to address skills shortages while larger firms looked to outside recruitment.
Staff retraining was seen as the most effective solution to meet skills needs.
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