A couple of weeks ago, an industry colleague challenged me, saying ‘Everyone bangs on about a skills shortage, but where’s the evidence?’

I said that while her big, fast growing company may not have any problems in recruiting, but through the supply chain, in aggregate there’s a problem.

(UKCES and the RAE have fairly detailed analysis of the problems.)

Brian Groom at the FT, had a fairly comprehensive summary of the issues in FT yesterday.

The bottom line is that 30% of vacancies in manufacturing are due to skills shortages – the highest for any sector in the economy.