Skilled workers who can adapt to changing job requirements often have greater financial security and earning potential. Scarce skills protect a worker from being replaced by technologies, since new technology can replicate some of the tasks that scarce skills perform but cannot replace the worker possessing those skills.
What is interesting about scarce skills is that these skills are not just harder to find, they are harder to keep and hard to develop.
Scarce skills exist because the market is unable to hire and retain high-quality workers with these rare skill sets in the numbers required and because (in many cases) people change jobs frequently, leaving organisations in a constant state of flux as new employees try to learn and achieve required skill levels.
A skilled occupation is described as "scarce" when the demand for workers exceeds the current supply. Scarce occupations are a vital component of our nations economy. They are important to the growth and vitality of an economy because if unfilled, or filled by people of lesser skill levels, these jobs will not be performed well or productively, impacting success. For example, an occupation such as sheet metal workers requires a combination of technical knowledge, hand/eye coordination, dexterity and strength to create quality work. The absence of high-quality workers in these positions would lead to substandard products and services from companies given an inferior end-product.
With ever-increasing workload, companies are facing a serious resource crunch. They can either engage more employees or outsource their work to an independent expertise which is often termed as third party service suppliers.
Scarcity of skilled labour is a problem specific to some businesses. Having problems with having qualified people are real issues and should be analysed seriously. Scarcity creates a very interesting topic because it may be related to the fundamental social problems of poor education and unfair distribution of wealth and talent.
