Initial Findings and Analysis
Within Greater Manchester, size and sector are factors affecting whether businesses have experienced skills shortages.
The majority of businesses that responded to the survey reported that they have experienced or are currently experiencing skills shortages in their workforce. 63% of the respondents either strongly agreed or agreed with this statement whilst just 9% disagreed and 3% strongly disagreed that they faced skills shortages. The remaining 25% neither agreed nor disagreed.
Business size and sector were factors affecting whether the business was experiencing skills shortages. Larger businesses i.e., those with more employees, and those in the production sector were more likely to experience skills shortages. As larger businesses are potentially more experienced in recruitment activity than smaller ones, it’s possible that they are stricter when assessing skills in candidates.
This in turn might affect their perception of skills gaps. Furthermore, businesses in the production sector reported skills shortages more frequently, which could suggest that there is a shortage of skills for manual and technical jobs.
To measure internal skills gaps, businesses were asked whether current staff possess the necessary skills to do their jobs. Nearly four in five respondents replied positively to this question: 24% strongly agreed that their staff did possess the necessary skills; 53% agreed with the statement. Another 15% chose a neutral response and the remaining 8% either disagreed or disagreed strongly. The responses to these questions show that businesses do not perceive a skills problem within their existing workforce, but, as the responses to the skills shortages question shows, two-thirds of the respondents also report experiencing skills shortages.
Do you agree with the initial findings?
We’d like to hear your thoughts. Contact the team via gmlsip@gmchamber.co.uk.