If recent statistics from Dutch multinational human resource consulting firm Randstad are anything to go by, the global tech skills shortage has reached new levels of desperation. According to Randstad, 45% of IT managers would rehire someone they had previously fired. Imagine the embarrassment.

As Adrian Smith, senior director of operations at Randstad UK points out, “by hiring someone you have fired – rather than someone who has just left the organisation – not only are there the obvious problems associated with trying to operate alongside someone who didn’t work-out the first time round, there’s the added risk of annoying ambitious people who have stayed with you – nudging them to leave in protest.”

It doesn’t feel like a solution to the perennial problem of technology sector skills shortages and as Bain suggested in September last year, “the war for technology talent is getting fiercer and spreading to new fronts as demand for crucial roles skyrockets.”