More than a third of businesses are struggling to fill jobs

More than a third of businesses say they are struggling to fill job vacancies Office of National Statistics.

There are now 1.3 million vacancies in the UK – the highest number since comparable figures began to be recorded in 2001. That’s a 62 percent increase in job openings since the pandemic.

There are now as many job vacancies as there are unemployed people in the UK, for only the second time in history.

As a result, Britain is expected to have the slowest growth among the world’s richest G7 nations, with growth of just 0.5 percent in 2023, according to the IMF, down from the 2.3 percent previously forecast as recently as April.

Which sectors are struggling to fill jobs?

• Accommodation and meals +107%
• Finance and Insurance +90%
• Information and communication +84%
• Professional, scientific and technical +79%
• Public administration and defense +77%

Why are businesses having trouble filling jobs?

The hospitality business, the worst-hit sector when it comes to jobs, relies on young people working in bars and waiters. The Institute for Employment Studies says there are fewer young people in the workforce due to a shrinking population and an increase in full-time students following the pandemic.

Some older workers simply left the job market after the pandemic and are not coming back.

It could also be that NHS waiting lists mean long-term conditions are not being treated, so older workers are unable to return to work.

In addition, Brexit has placed regulatory barriers between businesses such as the hospitality business and large numbers of EU workers.

More than 8 million people are called “economically unviable” out of a population of 67 million.

What can business owners do?

According to the survey of Art Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development44 percent of employers should increase the salary offered.

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However, some commentators are getting dry eyes at the idea that small business owner-managers should be paying staff more. Many of these jobs are in hospitality and retail, as well as seasonal farm work, all of which have been dubbed “McJobs” and are not considered full-fledged careers. Small business owners have gotten away with it for years, saying they pay the minimum they can afford and rely on cheap foreign labor.

Laurence Turner, head of trade union policy and research at GMB, told the BBC News night: “There has been a long period of stagnant wage growth…employers cannot afford not to raise wages…this is just a nettle for government and employers to grasp.”

Thirty-nine percent of employers are retraining staff they already need to fill new roles.

And 38 percent of businesses are making the workplaces they offer more flexible.

It is not clear how long this vacancy crisis will last. If some of the bleak economic forecasts come true, it may be that many of these jobs will simply disappear as businesses fail.

Additional reading

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