Britain's creative sector is suffering from a serious skills mismatch between supply and demand, according to an internal report by Creative & Cultural Skills, the sector skills council.

Despite nearly 700,000 people studying creative and cultural courses at universities and colleges, there were shortages in jobs such as make-up artists, set designers and wardrobe specialists, the survey found, reported in the Financial Times.

Stefan Ciecierski, European managing director at creative recruitment agency Aquent, told Recruiter that he agreed with the report's findings, with many people leaving the creative professions fairly soon after graduation. He said the two main reasons were a lack of status and lower salaries.