Freelancer.com chief executive Matt Barrie has described a federal government report asserting there is no skills shortage in the information technology sector as “rubbish”, reports the Australian Financial Review.

In a scathing attack of the 2012-13 Skills Shortage report which concluded there is no shortage of seven specific types of IT workers, including analyst programmers, developer programmers and software engineers, Mr Barrie asserts that the report is misleading

““What they’re talking about are technician level jobs, literally IT tech support roles. They’re not talking about software engineering or the real jobs that you need in a modern technology company,” he said.

“I would like someone to explain what the difference between ‘developer programmer’ and ‘software engineer’ is, because being an adjunct associate professor in the space and having hired hundreds of people in the industry I have no idea.

The AFR reports that the Department of Employment report, released last September, is in stark contrast to the message coming out of the local technology industry, with bosses complaining about how difficult it is to recruit qualified IT staff.

“It’s just so hard to find qualified software engineers – at all levels,” Mr Barrie said.

“It’s an absolute national tragedy what is happening in technology.