New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics which shows that more than half a million Australians are underemployed provides clear evidence that the skills shortage is being exaggerated, says Abacus Recruitment managing director Toby Marshall.

The ABS figures, released today, reveal that 4.7% of the total workforce is underemployed - defined as those who work less than full-time hours and want to work more.

Marshall said this information backed up his belief that while there had been some decline in visible, active candidates over the past few years, the real issue was underemployment, rather than a skills shortage.

He suggested that rather than listening to the hype about the skills shortage and making knee-jerk reactions to solve it, governments and industry should look at initiatives which overcome the structural under-utilisation of the Australian workforce.

Marshall claimed there was a range of industry groups and vested interests deliberately exaggerating the scope of the shortage. These included:

• Recruitment companies. Recruitment companies had a vested interest in encouraging clients to meet candidate salary levels and make quick hiring decisions, Marshall said. Abacus Recruitment had analysed the press releases and articles sent out by other agencies, he said, and found that the majority of them related to the skills problem, and how recruiters could help employers to address it.


• HR consultancies, "and in particular the people who work in employer branding". Like recruiters, it was in the interests of these companies to talk up the skills shortage, and promote the importance of branding, HR strategy and other services, he said.


• Job boards. Like recruiters and HR consultants, the major careers sites had a vested interest in promoting the skills shortage, Marshall said, because it created a problem for which they could sell a solution.


• Employer associations. He said these groups were acting on the concerns they were hearing from their members, who were genuinely struggling to find staff - but this was because they were using strategies and talent pools which had long since been exhausted. The simple fact was that employer associations favoured a plentiful supply of labour, Marshall said.


• The Government. Politicians were exaggerating the scope of the skills gap, because it gave them a chance to take credit for Australia's low unemployment rate, he said. "But what they're ignoring is [that] there's huge underemployment."


• The media. It was common sense that the news media preferred bad news stories such as the skills shortage, Marshall said, because they sold more newspapers and drew bigger audiences to the radio and TV news networks.