Britain is full of highly educated workers with skills that do not match the jobs available, meaning a large chunk of the labour force is failing to match its potential, a new report has found.

As many as 40pc of workers are either overskilled or underqualified for their jobs, while 40pc are also working in industries or jobs which are different from the area in which they trained, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has warned.

Companies put too little effort into training workers in the right skills, and should also work more closely with the education system to ensure school pupils and college and university students end up with the required abilities, the OECD said.

In particular workers often lack verbal, cognitive reasoning, social and complex problem-solving skills, and there is a shortage of those trained in maths, sciences, technology and engineering.

And the problem is getting worse as companies cut back their training budgets.

Mark Pearson, at the OECD, said: “Skills mismatch is very high in the UK compared with other countries, not just high when you look at it historically."