The Quarterly Recruitment Survey of 4,500 businesses reported 55% of respondents attempted to recruit in the quarter, up just 1% from the previous period.

While increases in employer NICs and the National Minimum Wage are undoubtedly influencing the appetite for recruitment, the survey also demonstrated the underlying challenges facing firms in identifying and hiring the right people.

Almost three quarters reported difficulties in Q2, with the transport and logistics and construction sectors the most likely to encounter recruitment problems.

Skills shortages are by no means a new problem and they will continue to hamper economic growth until policy in this area catches up with the needs of industry, both today and tomorrow.

That should include a more flexible and responsive training system and better support for people facing barriers to work, while employers will want to see a firm commitment to no further tax hikes on business that will further erode their margin to invest.

Liverpool Chamber oversees the Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) and we are working with employers in the Liverpool City Region to understand their labour needs and translate those into meaningful recommendations for further education providers and policymakers at a regional and national level.

Importantly, this is becoming increasingly aligned with the city region’s long-term skills plans, but obvious questions remain over how much businesses are able to focus on the far horizon when pressing needs in the short and medium term understandably dominate their thinking.

Building a skills base ready for projects and development is incredibly important and there is an opportunity for greater devolved powers to support this, with local decision-making and commissioning enabling us to better align business requirements with the education and skills provided by our local schools, colleges, universities and other training providers. The Bill introduced in Parliament last week may go some way to achieving this.

A consistent thread of feedback from employers through our LSIP communications is the need for greater ‘soft’ employability skills among candidates entering the labour market, as well as the importance of digital literacy as businesses look ahead to the opportunities and challenges of AI and digital tech. Employers are also keen to see candidates have more real-world learning and we are in discussions over the development of a pilot model to that end.

We are seeing a gradual loosening of the labour market as redundancies, restructures and business failures add more people into the pool. While this might create more applicants for each vacancy, will the same volume of vacancies be there, and will the applicants have the right skills mix for the role? In its current draft, the Employment Rights Bill could also inadvertently stifle recruitment of apprentices and those furthest away from the job market, so we must hope the government listens to employer feedback and rethinks its approach.

LSIP is crucial in threading a needle between the long-term skills needs of the city region and those more immediate challenges facing employers, in order to create solutions to present and future challenges. We are holding a conference in September to further expand on this important dialogue and we are always keen to hear feedback from employers.

Credible solutions to skill shortages will only come via employers, so please do get in touch if you’d like to share your thoughts.

To find out more about LSIP and register your interest, please visit:
https://www.liverpoolchamber.org.uk/local-skills-improvement-plan/