{"id":326935,"date":"2024-04-26T03:03:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T03:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebusinessmagazine.co.uk\/?p=326935"},"modified":"2024-04-24T15:19:26","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T15:19:26","slug":"hiring-difficulties-easing-but-concerns-persist-finds-bcc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebusinessmagazine.co.uk\/recruitment-careers-hr\/hiring-difficulties-easing-but-concerns-persist-finds-bcc\/","title":{"rendered":"Hiring difficulties easing but concerns persist, finds BCC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Hiring difficulties have eased in the first few months of 2024, according to the latest Quarterly Recruitment Outlook from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishchambers.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">British Chambers of Commerce (BCC)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>62 per cent of respondents had attempted to recruit in the past quarter, up from 59 per cent in Q4 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of those, 66 per cent reported difficulties in the process \u2013 the first time that figure has fallen below 70 per cent since the economy reopened post-Covid, and down 10 per cent from the previous quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Companies in production and manufacturing were most likely to face problems hiring staff, at 70 per cent. But this too was down from 77 per cent in Q4 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The challenge for firms in those sectors is mainly in finding skilled manual or technical staff, with only 35 per cent reporting issues recruiting semi- to unskilled workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, as businesses continue to face unpredictable economic conditions, the majority are struggling to increase investment in workplace training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the third quarter in succession, just over a quarter of businesses reported an increase in staff training investment, with 12 per cent reporting a drop. That compares with 14 per cent in Q4 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jane Gratton, deputy director public policy at the BCC, said: \u201cIt\u2019s welcome that the recruitment picture is improving, and the percentage of firms reporting difficulties is at its lowest level for three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis comes as other indicators show the labour market is cooling.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHowever, with 66 per cent of firms still facing hiring challenges, the problems remain significant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cToo many&nbsp;employers are struggling to find people with the skills they need to fill job vacancies. That\u2019s damaging business opportunities and growth.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe growing number of people not looking for work, or out of action because of long-term health issues, is exacerbating the skills problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMore needs to be done to tackle the issues behind this worrying trend and&nbsp;help people back into the workforce.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe need a long-term industrial strategy, underpinned by better skills planning and more investment in training. That needs to happen nationally, locally and in every business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe need to support everyone who wants to work to achieve their potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDoing that will help tackle skills shortages \u2013 improving growth and opportunities in local economies across the UK.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hiring difficulties have eased in the first few months of 2024, according to the latest Quarterly Recruitment Outlook from the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":326937,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,40473,40476],"tags":[36416],"taxonomy":[38649,38650,50808,37433,37432,37431,50863,51020],"listing_catagory":[],"acf":[],"category_names":["Business News","Manufacturing","Recruitment, Careers &amp; Skills"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebusinessmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326935"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebusinessmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebusinessmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebusinessmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebusinessmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebusinessmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326939,"href":"https:\/\/thebusinessmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326935\/revisions\/326939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebusinessmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebusinessmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebusinessmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebusinessmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326935"},{"taxonomy":"taxonomy","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebusinessmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/taxonomy?post=326935"},{"taxonomy":"listing_catagory","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebusinessmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing_catagory?post=326935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}