Job cuts in the electronics and IT industries will do nothing
to relieve the skills shortage hitting the sector, a recruitment company has
warned.
According to the IT staffing company Plexian, the current
round of job cuts by Philips, Ericsson and Cisco that could lead to more than 12,000
redundancies will not release new talent into the sector job market.
Companies making redundancies in the sector are shedding
workers with outdated skills or low skill levels.
Plexian director Roy O’Brien said, “The majority of staff
being shed is at more junior levels such as the relatively unskilled help desk
staff or very junior programmers.
“The biggest shortage of skills is at the higher end of the
skills market, for example among senior Java and Oracle programmers.
“We are seeing some senior staff being released but not
nearly enough to put a dent in current demand.”
