What is a Skill Shortage? (journal article)
by Sue Richardson
from Australian Bulletin of Labour, Vol 35 No 1 2009
"The vocational education and training system has an important role to play in assisting with the smooth matching of the skills wanted by employers with the skills offered by workers. It will be helped in this task if we can give a precise meaning to the term ‘shortage’; identify the circumstances under which any such shortage is likely to be naturally and efficiently resolved by market forces; and identify when direct policy intervention is called for to assist the market. VET will be a part of any public policy response. It is the purpose of this paper to set out some clear thinking on each of these issues. I will not attempt to quantify any overall or particular shortage of skills."