Skill Shortages In Europe: Half Of Applicants Not Qualified
Skill shortages in Europe are becoming a major issue for companies, as evidenced by several surveys.
According to Eurostat, 54% of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the EU indicated difficulty obtaining personnel with the necessary skills as one of their most important concerns in 2023.
ManpowerGroup, a global workforce solutions provider, also discovered that three out of four employers in 21 European nations were unable to find the skills they needed. This reached 42% in 2018, representing a 33 percentage point or 79% increase over the previous five years.
Key Highlights
- Some 75% of employers in 21 European countries could not find workers equipped with the right skills in 2023.
- This was up from 42% in 2018, an increase of 33 percentage points.
- And there’s no sign of demand for skilled workers slowing any time soon.
In October 2023, ManpowerGroup’s annual Talent Shortage survey revealed a significant global challenge of a shortage of skilled workers. According to Mara Stefan, VP of Global Insights at ManpowerGroup, 75% of employers in 21 European countries reported difficulty filling job roles.
“In Europe, unemployment is declining, which means there aren’t enough skilled workers to fill existing or new jobs. To make matters worse, Europe’s population is aging, and a global fall in birthrates is adding to the skills and ability imbalances we see today,” she emphasized.
“This helps to explain why Germany has a higher talent deficit than Finland. In 2023, Germany’s unemployment rate was 3.0%, while Finland’s was 7.0%, resulting in a smaller pool of trained labor,” Mara Stefan explained.
In 2018, the average in these nations was 42%, ranging from 18% in Ireland to 81% in Romania. Except for Romania, the proportion of companies that were unable to find the skills they required rose significantly between 2018 and 2023.
This increase was greater than 50 percentage points in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Spain, and France. For example, it ranged from 18% to 81% in Ireland and 19% to 80% in the United Kingdom.
The increase was also greater than the European average in the Netherlands (47 percent), Norway (44 percent), Switzerland (40 percent), Belgium (39 percent), and Italy (38 percent).
According to an Eurobarometer survey, 56% of EU businesses reported having few or no candidates when asked about the primary reasons for their talent shortages.
This was the most significant element, ranging from 18% in Sweden to 73% in Belgium. All Nordic nations reported lower results than the EU norm for identifying a lack of applicants, with Norway and Denmark coming close to the average.
The EU’s ‘Big Four’ of Spain, France, and Germany had slightly higher values than the EU average.
The top reasons provided by companies were that candidates did not have the required qualifications, abilities or experience, closely followed the lack of applications at 54%. In the EU, it ranged from 41% in France to 70% in Estonia, demonstrating how broad the skill gap has become. In both indicators, the UK scored lower than the EU average.
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