Unskilled 'unemployable in 10 years'

PEOPLE without skills will find themselves out of a job within a decade, CBI director-general Digby Jones has predicted.

Speaking as the CBI kicked off its annual conference in Birmingham, Jones said: 'I can see the day shortly - within the next 10 years - when there won't be any work for unskilled people. It's coming down the track very, very quickly.'

The prediction came as the CBI published a major report into offshoring, which revealed more than half of firms feel that the pressure to relocate parts of their business overseas has increased over the past two years.

But the employers' group argued that despite fears of job losses, the benefits of offshoring outweigh the drawbacks, saying the process will increase productivity, profitability and economic growth.

Surveyed firms said the number of UK jobs lost was, on average, equal to about 4% of their workforce, although half added that they were continuing to hire at home.

They are creating mostly skilled and graduate jobs in Britain, while semi-skilled and unskilled positions are moving overseas.

Jones said: 'Globalisation means that jobs will come, jobs will go, and nothing remains the same forever.

'The challenge is to create more jobs than we lose - which we are doing - and to ensure people have the skills to take advantage of them, which remains a problem.'