the skills shortage: myth or fact?

the purpose of my small essay today is to address briefly something which has been a source of personal irritation for me for some years: the (so called) "Skills Shortage"

I graduated from a University something like 15 years ago, along with at least 70 other people in my year, and that's just the group who studied Information Technology. Now that's just one of the universities in my state and for one semester. I haven't heard of there being a massive downturn in graduations any time (and I worked in a University for a few years...) so there must be quite some number of graduates out there. Last I looked Australia has over 40 Universities nationally, for example I think this is most of them:

University of Adelaide
University of Ballarat
University of Canberra
University of Melbourne
University of New England
University of New South Wales
University of Newcastle
University of Notre Dame Australia
University of Queensland
University of South Australia
University of Southern Queensland
University of Sydney
University of Tasmania
University of Technology Sydney
University of the Sunshine Coast
University of Western Australia
University of Western Sydney
University of Wollongong
Bond University
Central Queensland University
Charles Darwin University
Charles Sturt University
Curtin University of Technology
Deakin University
Edith Cowan University
Flinders University
Griffith University
James Cook University
La Trobe University
Macquarie University
Monash University
Murdoch University
Queensland University of Technology
RMIT University
Southern Cross University
Swinburne University of Technology
Victoria University
Australian Catholic University
Australian Defence Force Academy
Australian Graduate School of Management
Australian National University

so, looking down that list and thinking that every year there are at least two graduation groups I wonder just how we can have any skills shortage in the labor market.

For example, according to ABS: Australian Social Trends, 2004 Education & Work; Higher Education Graduates in the Labour Market,

PEOPLE WITH HIGHER EDUCATION QUALIFICATIONS AS A PROPORTION OF THE POPULATION

looks to be going up steadily doesn't it ... hard to imagine that the economy has grown at the same pace.

PEOPLE WITH HIGHER EDUCATION QUALIFICATIONS AS A PROPORTION OF AGE GROUPS - 2001

This seems to show that after 2001 a higher portion of the young people were getting degrees than ever before (notice how the degree proportion was stable in the group from their late 30's through to their 50's?)

Looking at this chart, below:

UNEMPLOYMENT RATES(a) FOR PEOPLE AGED 20-64 YEARS

I can see why people would want to have degrees, as unemployment in a down turn (the recession of the early 90's) effected people without higher education more sharply than those with higher education.

All this evidence makes it pretty hard to comprehend that we have a skills shortage.

Until you start looking for a job ... then you hear "we only want people with experience"

I was lucky when I graduated, I got a job almost straight away and got experience, but not everyone does. So I'm quite sure that there are heaps of people who have skills who just can't get jobs.

The problem as I see it is that current business practice is to not invest in creating skills. Instead of getting staff and developing them the emphasis is on the short term. We have out sourced jobs left and right (taking advantage of cheaper labor markets overseas) while shedding staff and off shoring.

So perhaps they mean "we can't find any 23 year olds with 12 years experience who are willing to work in a job at the rates we're willing to pay".

This does not seem to be building a better Australia for Australians if you ask me.

But why would you invest your time and money in getting skills in the first place if you don't actually get any reward for that? I can say with personal experience that I know areas where relatively unskilled people are getting quite reasonable incomes. Know anyone driving trucks for a mine for instance?

For so long we in the Lucky Country have been either "living off the sheeps back" or digging it out of the ground. Our leadership has systematically destroyed manufacturing sectors (cheaper to get it from China ... say did you know Australia used to manufacture computers? Yep, right in Brisbane Cleveland Computers ... disappeared back in the 80's) to replace everything with "service sectors" and ... Tourism (oh, hang on that's service) ... ok Mining I guess?

I've mentioned this theme before, so I won't harp on it more.

Perhaps the area they mean is in skills like trades. I find something in that looking at the current roof insulation scandal I keep finding truly chilling things like this:

Master Electricians Australia chief executive Malcolm Richards said an electrician found a Brisbane home's ceiling to be live with 80 volts running through the foil insulation.

He said the foil had been stapled through electrical cables in a number of places.

Now I'm not even going to ask how someone who has gone through an Australian school system doesn't know not to put a stable through an electrical cable. Clearly the people who did this were inexperienced.

Reading this:

Three months after an electric shock killed Rueben in the roof cavity of the steel-framed house, his family -- along with the families of three other victims -- are demanding answers. Why have untrained workers been allowed to do such a potentially dangerous job?

its a fair question, but I'd ask this: "why are the roof spaces so dangerous?"

However having been in a few ceiling spaces over the years I can certainly report some horror stories myseslf, so perhaps the installers of the insulation were fighting against forces we can't speak of ... have you noticed that you can get any number of household electrical things from supermarkets?

Strange that its illegal to install these things without an electrical license ... of course, must be just buying them to save the sparky time ... right?

Yet, having worked on construction sites myself, I can attest to witnessing some strange things (like a guy cutting through a 3 phase cable with an Arc welder. "I didn't see it" ... that was fun to watch, from 100 Meters away). Of course this sort of workplace accident is really attributable to training and experience.

I'm not sure if this is strictly a business and free economy issue or one that relates to society and our leadership. Tough question there ...

Interestingly in that same article is this:

He wanted to be a carpenter, and had snared an apprenticeship straight out of school -- but business slowed and the boss laid him off.

which relates directly to my above question of investing in our skill base in the country.

So perhaps what I'm really wondering is, if the real skills shortage is in senior areas of Corporate management and Government rather than anywhere else.

Lastly I spotted this on in the letters to the editor in the SMH:

Tony Abbott says that if Peter Garrett was a company director in NSW, "he would be charged with industrial manslaughter". As a former minister for health, Mr Abbott would therefore have no problem taking responsibility for all the hospital deaths caused by medical errors in that period.

just brilliant