Survey shows Australia needs skilled workers despite rising unemployment
1/12/2008 16:03
A new quarterly survey released in Canberra today showed that Australia
still needs skilled workers despite tough economic times ahead.
The Clarius
Skills Index report said chefs and hairdressers were two of the top 10 skilled
occupations where there remains a shortage, despite an economic slowdown and the
threat of rising unemployment.
The report suggested that despite worsening
economic conditions, it does not necessarily mean an end to the skills
crisis.
"Our experience suggests that while most industry sectors will shed
jobs in the short term, many redundancies will impact employees now regarded as
low performers but who may have been better positioned in the boom times,"
Clarius Group executive chairman Geoff Moles said.
According to the report,
while there were an estimated two million professional and associate
professional jobs either taken or available, there were only 1.94 million
available to fill them. The current jobless rate is at 4.3 percent although some
economists predict that the unemployment rate could go as high as 9 percent in
the next two years.
The new index for the September quarter was 103.5, a
slight increase on the 103.3 recorded in the previous quarter and higher than
the 102.4 registered a year earlier. A score of 100 indicates a balance between
labour supply and demand. A reading greater than 105 is regarded as extreme,
conversely a score of 95 to 98 is moderate.
Xinhua
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