Bosses seek action over 'worker shortage'

The Government is being urged to help firms recruit workers after research showed employers are facing problems attracting staff.

The British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) says a survey of 5,600 businesses found four out of five said they had problems recruiting workers in recent months.

Hospitality firms were most likely to face challenges when recruiting, followed by manufacturers and construction – although the public sector was also finding it difficult to take on staff, the BCC said.

The BCC's director of policy and public affairs, Alex Veitch, said: "These findings reveal that businesses are facing the highest level of recruitment difficulties on record.

"The Government will be celebrating their apprenticeship programme next week as part of National Apprenticeship Week, but we urge them to use this as an opportunity to take a hard look at the reality of how the system is actually working for businesses and apprentices.

"The Apprenticeship Levy is unsuitable for many employers, and the BCC is calling on the Government to introduce flexibility to it.”

"Childcare is also a major barrier to inactive workers re-entering the workforce. Access to childcare must be simple and affordable; we would like to see the introduction of a flexible family childcare budget that can be used to meet individual families' needs.

"The Government must reform the Shortage Occupation List to help businesses fill urgent job vacancies when they cannot recruit locally.

"With an anaemic economy and low productivity, Governmentmust take immediate steps to ease these considerable labour pressures on businesses.”