 Adjusting to skill shortages in Australian SMEsJoshua Healy, Kostas Mavromaras and Peter Sloane Applied Economics, 2015, vol. 47, issue 24, 2470-2487 Abstract: Skill shortages are often portrayed as a major problem for advanced economies, yet there is surprisingly little empirical evidence about how firms adjust to skill shortages and their associated effects on firm performance. This article provides new evidence from the Business Longitudinal Database, an Australian data set with unusually rich information on the causes and consequences of skill shortages in small- and medium-sized enterprises. We document the range of alternative strategies that firms adopt when responding to skill shortages and show that certain types of adaptation are used in some cases and not in others, depending on the type of shortage encountered and other attributes of the firm. Further, we show that certain types of skill shortage are more likely to be long-lasting and difficult to resolve, while others are alleviated relatively quickly with minimal adjustment. Our findings yield lessons for the skill utilization strategies of firms and for the labour market policies of governments. Date: 2015 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:applec:v:47:y:2015:i:24:p:2470-2487 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2015.1008764 Access Statistics for this article Applied Economics is currently edited by Anita Phillips More articles in Applied Economics from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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