Nearly half of employers have vacancies for hard-to-fill roles

As many as 47% of UK employers say that they have vacancies that are hard-to-fill, with 27% expecting this figure to increase over the next six months.

Surveying more than 1,000 employers across all sectors of the economy, the latest quarterly CIPD Labour Market Outlook found that the hard-to-fill vacancies are mostly seen in construction, healthcare and public administrations and defence.

Nearly three quarters (71%) of employers surveyed are planning to recruit in the three months to December 2021, with intentions at their highest since the start of the pandemic.

However, with many employers anticipating increased recruitment difficulties, they have adopted a variety of tactics in a bid to combat this:

• 47% have raised wages over the past six months to help offset hard-to-fill vacancies.
• 44% plan to upskill existing staff
• 27% will look to hire more apprentices
• 20% will improve job quality

Gerwyn Davies, senior labour market adviser for the CIPD, commented, “Employers have a challenging few months ahead with many anticipating increased recruitment difficulties. On the upside, it’s positive to see that some employers are getting better at sourcing labour by taking steps to improve how they recruit, retain and train staff. However, there’s a relatively long tail of employers who could be doing more to attract and make full use of available workers.

“More business support is required from government to help employers increase their capability to invest in skills and create better quality and more productive jobs. This is essential if the UK economy has any hope of transitioning to a high-skill, high wage economy.

“The research findings strengthen the case for extending the existing Youth Mobility Scheme. This would prove a timely, cheap and effective ‘safety valve’ to help ease immediate labour shortages. Meanwhile, reforming the Apprenticeship Levy into a broader, more flexible training levy would give employers the opportunity to use a wider range of qualifications that are more relevant for hard-to-fill roles. Key examples of this include NVQs for support workers and HGV driver training and licences.”

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