This article reports that in New Zealand, the global skills shortage that experts have been predicting for years has already hit. The greatest constraint on expansion for New Zealand businesses is lack of a skilled workforce according to Darel Hall, executive director of the country's Industry Training Federation. The skills shortage is at 50 percent in New Zealand, which Hall says is almost twice the global average of 28 percent and shows that the shortages in his country are amongst the most severe in the world. Recent Department of Labor research in New Zealand investigated the skills shortage in 16 trade occupations and found genuine skill shortages in all but one of them. But training and learning can help.