IT skills shortage? - we ain't seen nothin yet!

[kevinh]

An article in the Fin Review earlier this week made reference to a "demographic time bomb" which is forecast to hit IT industry in the USA. Research indicates that over the next 12 years 5 million new workers will enter the US IT industry, while 25 million will retire!

I believe we will have similar problems here in Australia, the numbers will be smaller but as a proportion of our workforce they will be similar to the US. To some extent this is due to the IT market bubble bursting after Y2K and school leavers avoiding IT at university level, but even if our shortage is not quite as acute as that in the US, the US will almost certainly be looking to attract skills from other countries and Australia will be high in their hit list.

[Moz]

This issue is going to apply to much more that the IT industry. Try recruiting an accountant or an engineer.

One of the sectors in most difficulty will be our public service. Many departments already struggle to fill positions and there's a significant percentage of staff who are retiring in the next 10 years (I don't have the exact numbers to hand).