Surely they are joking?

The Australian Industry Group - the lobby group that is funded by big business - has just released its National CEO Survey.

And apparently:

More than a quarter of companies surveyed have been severely affected by the economic downturn.

Large companies were hardest hit with 37.3% being very affected by the downturn. The impact has been most severe in the construction and manufacturing sectors.

All as would be expected - when times are tough.

But the really scary thing is that old furphy *skills shortages* is being bandied about again.

Apparently the survey has uncovered that there will be shortages of - labourers and process workers, engineers, managers, apprentices and trainees. Plus apparently there are skill shortages in literacy, numeracy and information technology.

And according to the report, amongst companies in the survey, the average decline in employment expected in 2009/10 is 3.8%.

This is a polite way of saying that these CEO's will sack somewhere around 200,000 people (my estimate) over the course of the next year.

Did I mention that these same CEO's will cut back expenditure on training - on average companies anticipate a 4.1% reduction in training expenditure in 2009/10.

Forgive me for asking but if they are sacking people and cutting back on training - how do they expect to deal with the *skills shortages* that they think will apparently cause chaos?

Let me guess.

It's the prerogative of these CEO's to hire and fire at will - without any regard to the national interest.

But it's the job of government to ensure that there is sufficient *fodder* for these companies when they want to start hiring again. And if there isn't a massive pool of skilled workers ready and able then they will be insisting on an expansion of the 457 Visa scam - sorry scheme.

It's all so predictable - Surely they are joking?