Employment in Sussex is expected to grow by 0.8 per cent per year in the next ten years.

The figure is only one third of the growth rate experienced in the county between 1995 and 2000.

Researchers at Skills Insight (SI) said employment will grow most in the business services, health and wholesaling sectors and fall in agriculture, fishing and transport. Most of the new jobs will low paid.

In its skills review update SI, in conjunction with South East England Development Agency (Seeda) and advisors at Business Strategies Experian, found the business services sector would generate more than 135,000 new jobs in the South-East, more than twice as much as any other sector. A spokesman for SI said the greatest growth was expected to be in relatively low-skilled occupations.

He added: "Elementary administrative and service occupations are projected to generate almost 95,000 of the new jobs."

But the region is heading for a skills crisis in the IT sector.

The greatest deficiencies are predicted to be in the basic operator sector, including word-processing and spreadsheet use.

By 2006 the shortage of skilled IT personal in Sussex is expected to be more than 13,000.

The problem was not expected to be eased by increasing the number of young people going into further education and SI said there was a need for greater emphasis on vocational training.

Employers in the region are not happy with the overall abilities of school-leavers or graduates.

The TUC said that in the South-East more than one million people lacked basic literacy and numeracy skills.

The organisation said low aspirations, low skills, unemployment and low productivity went hand-in-hand and suggested the Government made additional funding available to Seeda.

Mike Connolly, TUC regional secretary, said: "There really is no future for our economy in low skill, low wage, high volume, low quality production.

"The future is in a highly skilled workforce, which can adapt to new ways of working."

Graduates are also failing to find favour with employers.

According to the Chartered Management Institute, graduates may be technical wizards but many only have a basic grasp of the key interpersonal and analytical skills needed to succeed in the workplace.

The institute said 75 per cent of managers are impressed with graduates'

IT skills but only 30 per cent are impressed with their ability to communicate.