Hays study reveals growing Australian skills gap
The volume and level of skills sought by Australian employers is outstripping the available talent pool, a new study from recruitment firm Hays shows.
The Hays Global Skills Index finds that despite an existing pool of labour, employers in high-skill industries still find it difficult to fill jobs that require highly-skilled professionals.
Nick Deligiannis, Managing Director of Hays in Australia & New Zealand, said: “Employers in industries such as IT, engineering, financial services and professional services have higher demand for talent than those in low-skill industries.”
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Australia’s increase from 5.1 to 5.5 on the overall Index – the highest since 2013 – shows increased pressure in the job market, meaning it is harder to secure the right talent now than it was a year ago.
This is also reflected by an increasing wage gap between highly-skilled workers and the rest of the Australian workforce.
Deligiannis added: “New technology is rendering routine and repetitive jobs redundant and leading to greater demand for higher-skill workers relative to medium- and lower-skill workers. Wages for the former (such as in digital, engineering, senior accounting and estimating) have continued to grow at around the same rate year-on-year, while lower-skill occupations experienced much slower wage growth.”
