With so many unemployed is there really a skills shortage?

careers service not used 150Many graduate employers have admitted to offering too little pay to attract the best workers

Many companies are blaming the education system for failing to produce “work-ready” candidates when they can’t find skilled workers. This means that specialist; senior roles can go unfilled for months because of the lack of expertise.

Around six in ten employers are admitting that they are turning away candidates that a suitable for the position because they cannot afford to hire them, according to a new report from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).

The companies surveyed said that the salaries they offered failed to attract the best staff that they required, but weren’t willing to increase wages due to the current economic climate. Pay is the second most frequently cited excuse for recruitment problems, followed by competition from other employers, location, company, and benefits package they offered.

Yet skills shortages still remains the biggest problem, with 80% of employers saying the failed to fill their roles with suitable candidates, yet CMI commented that employers need to try harder to attract the best talent.

Christopher Kinsella, acting chief executive of the CMI, said: “We understand that many organisations are still struggling to provide general salary increases due to recessionary pressures, but we urge employers to look to non-financial methods of rewarding good employees or risk losing them.”

The CMI study showed one in 10 managers quit their jobs last year – more than twice as many as the year before – as people felt increasingly undervalued and overworked in their roles.

Mr Kinsella said: “A company that does not work hard to retain its employees and invest in its people will find itself in a difficult situation given we already have a shortage of high quality managers.

In the year to September 2011 there was an increase of 20.3% in staff turnover for management roles, including those resigning, retiring, transferring internally and being made redundant. Half of the companies surveyed said they were struggling to retain the right staff.

The onus is on graduates to obtain employment during their studies to develop the necessary skills that employees are looking for, the benefit of having experience in your chosen field shows dividends when applying for a lucrative graduate job. Companies receive over 50 applicants per graduate job, therefore to stand out from the crowd and showing the relevant skills for that job can put you a step in front.

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