UK employers are desperately looking for new staff but cannot fill vacancies because of the chronic lack of skills in the country’s workforce, a new report has found.
The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, which looked at firms’ intentions over the coming quarter, found that a balance of plus 16 per cent were looking to take on staff.
This balance, taken by subtracting the amount of employers needing to reduce their workforce from those wanting to expand, revealed a strong desire among businesses to take on staff.
However, Manpower said that the severe lack of skills in the UK workforce and the low unemployment rate was making it difficult for employers to find high quality workers.
The research backs up previous government data which showed that there was an estimated 500,000 unfilled vacancies in the UK.
The lack of workplace skills has become a major problem for small firms, with a quarter of employers suffering from low productivity and profits due to poorly-trained employees.
Hazel Detsiny, director at Manpower, said that the hiring intentions over the coming quarter remained stable.
“We’re also hearing anecdotal evidence from employers that whilst they are voicing their intent to hire, they often find it hard to find suitable candidates with the right skills and qualities to fill a number of these vacancies.
“The Learning and Skills Council’s recent survey showed that half of employers who reported having vacancies said that at least one of these vacancies was hard to fill.
“With unemployment rates the lowest since 1984, companies are going to have to attract staff through top-class benefit programmes as well as invest in their workforces through training and development programmes to retain existing staff,” she said.
