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Creation Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2010 GMT

Fear factor drives latest skills shortage as job vacancies left unfilled

• Bosses struggle to fill vacancies
  
• Fear factor driving skills shortage
  

THEY'RE tough jobs but someone has to do them. Someone. Anyone.
Stonemasons, locksmiths, signwriters and midwives are among occupations awash with vacancies
no one wants to fill.

New government analysis shows bosses are struggling to find takers for many advertised jobs
despite evidence that full-time employment is rising across the nation.

Many are mainstream positions such as optometrists, structural engineers and quantity surveyors.
Some are highly "in-demand" jobs linked to the latest minerals boom - mining engineers and
geologists - while others are comparatively "niche" jobs such as arborists.

The Herald Sun has been told a "fear factor" is partly driving this latest skills shortage.
Thanks to uncertainty created by the global economic crisis, workers are reluctant to apply for new
jobs even if they are not 100 per cent happy with their current employment - preferring to stay put
because it is at least secure and stable.

But experts say the one common factor is that all occupations in question require years of training
and that appears to be the problem - there are not enough properly qualified applicants to meet
demand.

"A lot of the skills shortages are in mainstream occupations, such as engineering, where Australia
has been under-investing in people for some time," Australian Industry Group chief executive
Heather Ridout said.

Ms Ridout is on the board of Skills Australia, the Federal Government's advisory body on the
workforce, which recently warned of a skills shortage of 240,000 specialised positions by 2015.
The global financial crisis produced a downturn in training and Ms Ridout is working with the
Government to accelerate a return to previous levels.

Fear factor drives latest skills shortage as job vacancies left unfilled | News.com.au Page 1 of 2
http://www.news.com.au/business/business-smarts/fear-factor-drives-latest-skills-sho... 15 Jun 2010
"It took us a decade to get our training levels back after the '90s recession," she said. "This time we
have moved a lot more quickly and, while there will be some legacy, it won't be as extreme."

By Michael Harvey, 'Herald Sun', June 14