SA's skills shortage substantial: Adcorp

TUESDAY, 14 JANUARY 2014 09:18

The Adcorp Employment Index for November and December last year showed that SA's skills shortage was substantial and was not being met by the local supply of high-skilled workers.  "Since the global financial crisis in 2008, approximately 359,000 high-skilled South Africans have returned from foreign work assignments," Adcorp's labour market economist Loane Sharp said.  The SA economy's demand for high-skilled workers has remained relatively stable over the past decade and Sharp named a number of reasons, namely that there was a consistent shortage of high-skilled workers amounting to around 829 000 unfilled vacancies; that the unemployment rate for high-skilled workers has remained roughly constant at around 0.4% (compared to an unemployment rate of 37% for the workforce as a whole); and that the supply of high-skilled foreign workers has been negligible due to strict immigration measures adopted 2002 and further tightened in 2008 and 2010.  Sharp said the restrictions on foreigners living and working in SA should be relaxed, since this would supplement the dwindling local supply of skills.

• Read this report at Fin24