Skills shortages do not exist

Only employers, governments and individuals who fail to plan or invest adequately in the human capabilities that really matter, argues Tom Bewick

We’ve all read the headlines—our prosperity threatened by skills shortages!

Everyone nods in agreement and says something must be done. After all, employers complain that they cannot find the care workers, delivery drivers, doctors, and tech talent that their organisations so desperately need.

Yet very few people ever question why these so-called ‘shortages’ occurred in the first place. Like some article of faith, they are just accepted as a fact of life, with very little consideration as to why they might exist.

Having read extensively in economic and human capital theory for my PhD studies, combined with three decades of professionally working with employers, I’ve come to the view that skills shortages do not exist.

At least, they would not exist if society organised skills and workforce policy more optimally.

Instead, what we often see is a self-concocted fabrication by business lobby groups and neoliberals, who weaponise the spectre of sup…