The UK must lead its unemployed citizens to gain skills that are now lacking in the British workforce, said Jim Murphy, minister of state for employment and welfare reform.

Murphy spoke last week at the launch of recruitment conglomerate Vedior's review of the UK's skills shortage, 'Is the UK up to the job?'.

With help from the private sector, unemployed people on disability and the ethnic minority population could help close the skills gap, he said. "We should be focusing on why our own citizens will not or cannot fill those vacancies." (See also Industry Trends story.)