Employers’ Skill Needs Survey

The Employers' Skill Needs Survey provides information and identifies existence of skill shortages/gaps by occupation, sector and geographical area in the construction industry so CITB-ConstructionSkills can monitor the short-term skills supply situation and advise on 'hot-spots' to inform planning and training.

To summarise:

• Approximately 500 construction companies drawn from across Great Britain were asked about workload and recruitment difficulties during October 2004.
• Expectations of future workload were highest in the North East, but nationally slightly lower than last year.
• Approximately three-quarters of employers said they were experiencing recruitment difficulties. Craft trades and managers presented the most problems.
• Filling vacancies in the permanent workforce was more of a problem than finding temporary contract workers.
• When asked about unfilled vacancies over the last three months, 17% of companies reported having at least one.
• Approximately a third of companies had to refuse a contract because of a shortage of skilled staff however the same proportion said they had been able to get the staff required by offering higher wages.
• Companies were mainly happy with the skill levels of their current workforce, but skills of new recruits were more of a problem.
• Employers preferred to recruit a permanent workforce who had the necessary skills and work experience; aged between 20 and 40 years old.

Any queries or comments on this report should be addressed to kirsty.woolsey@citb.co.uk.

Employers' Skill Needs Survey 2000 23kb PDF file
Employers' Skill Needs Survey 2001 30kb PDF file
Employers' Skill Needs Survey 2002 67kb PDF file
Employers' Skill Needs Survey 2003 201kb PDF file
Employers' Skill Needs Survey 2004 213kb PDF file