Recruitment challenges from the skills gap

Some interesting evidence here in the Telegraph that suggests firms in certain sectors are struggling to attract sufficient applicants with the necessary skills and experience for their vacancies, Students might question why this is the case when unemployment is so high (at around 2.5 million in the UK)?

The answer is that each market or industry has varying requirements for applicant skills. For some there will rarely be a shortage of potential applicants. For sectors where employees need to gave more specialist skills, shortages often arise.

The Telegraph lists what it says are the “UK’s top 10 most difficult jobs to fill in 2011”. These are:

Engineers
Chefs /cooks
Management /executive
Sales representatives
Drivers
Technicians
Skilled trades
Teachers
Accounting and finance staff
IT staff

I’m not sure there is a common theme in the list above. Maybe firms are simply finding that there requirements are set at a high standard that too few applicants can achieve?