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Barely a day goes by without a stream of headlines about labour shortages, with many commentators rushing to blame the UK’s exit from the EU. Adrian Smith argues that they’re missing the point. Over the summer, a string of firms have experienced staff shortages. Many experts seemed to conclude the same thing - that this is the result of Brexit. But if you look at the research more carefully, it suggests these shortages are, on the whole, being an increase in demand for skills, rather than a shrinking supply of EU labour. The big story is, of course, the number of HGV drivers. In June we were short of 65,000, according to the Road Haulage Association, and by September this had grown to 100,000. On the face of it, there appears to be a shortage of suitably qualified labour, caused by EU drivers heading home. But look beneath the surface and the story isn’t quite so cut and dried. There are about 600,000 people holding LGV cat C (rigid truck) or cat C+E (articulated lorry) licences in the UK who do not currently drive trucks for a living.