This paper argues that there is little evidence of impending skills shortages. This is not to say that there will be no skills shortages in specific areas. In any case, the business cycle could have a much more dramatic effect on the demand for skills than demographic trends.

This paper was presented at the Skills Australia, Academy of Social Sciences seminar in Sydney in September 2008. It concentrates on the factors that affect individual and employer demand, and points out that accredited vocational education and training need to be considered in the context of extensive use of on-accredited and on-the-job training.

This paper explores the issue of how vocational education and training (VET) is actually used in the labour market, in particular the match between what people study and the jobs they get. This match is pretty poor in most occupational groups with the exception of the trades. However, the paper concludes that the mismatch reflects...

Tom Karmel argues that workforce planning should be built on an understanding of how the labour market works and the links between it and education and training. Workforce planning is particularly difficult for the resources and infrastructure industry because the demand for resources is difficult to forecast and the industry is made up of relatively...

The ageing society has been attracting the attention of policy-makers in Australia and in many other countries. This paper considers the labour market for the traditional trades in Australia over the next 40 years and investigates whether the ageing society will pose a workforce problem. The broad conclusion is that the ageing society will significantly...