I don't believe a second there is a common shortage of skills. That's why I don't agree with skill shift! I come from time when everyone in IT had to take a month or two training in our business when hey started, operators, programmers, analysts, etc, even vendor support persons were required to have business skills - otherwise they were too much waste of time. Does this happen today - NO! So business skills are overrated. Of course learning good marketing pitch works always but we are not selling cars, ouch, there is the car example is again?

Yes, HR is often a problem and no wonder the managers getting the resumes after HR screening are a little confused. They are looking professionals and HR is looking keywords, not much common there.

Many other - I have hired and recommended people without a resume, just talking to them, and have to say statistically these people are still the best. I have not hired and not recommended persons with perfect resumes and even after a "good" interview just because the feeling was not right - often (very often) later to learn that I was right, they made a mess in some other company.

What I try to say, if you need good employees, you have to work on it. And really today, if you want someone just to do a small part, don't overlook people (especially students) who would be happy to have a project, not a lifetime career yet. They may not yet have the "certificates" but they are often very skilled and very eager to learn more, nobody knows everything, each environment is different.

Older workers, like me, can see the 30+ people freezing when I walk to an interview for a project. As my friend said, he could use my skills but not hire me because if the management would learn my experience, he would be very afraid of his own position. I can understand that, seen that, and try help my friends.

So - many reasons, all weak but true often just because that's how human nature works. The fantasy and the fallacy of efficient management doesn't exist and has never been reality as long as money, greed, other (required?) human traits are included in decision making.