Despite the UK enjoying the lowest unemployment rate since 2005, British employers are being hit in the pocket as they try to fill a skills gap said to be costing them £2.2 billion in salaries that have had to be hiked in order to attract properly-skilled applicants.
Increased recruitment costs and payments to temporary staff are also blamed. 90 per cent of employers have struggled to recruit workers with the right skills in the last 12 months, according to research carried out by Britain’s Open University. The OU suggests that the gap is the result of a post Brexit-vote unwillingness to change jobs and a slowing-up of talented workers arriving from the EU.
One in five UK employers has struggled to source both senior managers (21%) and mid-level managers (19%), and more than two in five (43%) are finding that candidates lack management skills. Applicants with the right IT skills have also proved in too-short supply.
Brian Ducket, chairman of The Franchising Centre, said, “For franchising in the UK, this means there may be a further increase in the already apparent slow-down in franchisee recruitment. The uncertainty around Brexit makes it less likely that people will take the big step to starting a business, particularly if they have the perceived security of existing, albeit unfulfilling, employment or the opportunity to change employers rather than going it alone”.
