New research published today by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills shows that over a third of vacancies in electricity, gas and water and construction are now due to skills shortages.

The Employer Skills Survey 2015 - Skills in the labour market finds that despite a surge in job openings, the number of positions left vacant because employers cannot find people with the skills or knowledge to fill them has risen by 130% since 2011. The modest economic growth of the past four years has been met by an unprecedented shortage of skills, leaving thousands of vacancies unfilled.

The figures, published today show so-called “skills shortage vacancies” now make up nearly a quarter of all job openings, leaping from 91,000 in 2011 to 209,000 in 2015.

Although most sectors are suffering from skills shortages, the situation is particularly acute for some.

Although there was relatively little change in the density of skill-shortage vacancies across the UK as whole, the sectoral pattern was considerably different to 2013. The Electricity, Gas and Water and Construction sectors have the highest densities of skills shortage vacancies (36 per cent and 34 per cent, respectively). The number of skill-shortage vacancies in the Construction sector has more than doubled since 2013: from 5,000 to 11,900.

At an occupational level, skills gaps continued to be more prevalent in what are traditionally described as unskilled or semi-skilled occupations.

Workload management, teamwork, specialist and  complex analytical skills lacking

The most common skills deemed to be lacking among existing staff were people and personal skills relating to workload management and teamwork. Specialist, job-specific skills were also widely considered to be lacking, along with complex analytical skills, especially among those in high-skill occupations such as Managers and Professionals

Overall, vacancies and skill shortage vacancies have increased significantly over the last two years, with some sectors in particular facing heightened difficulties in recruiting staff, such as in Construction and Finance.

An area of real concern is skill shortages faced by the construction sector, a hugely important sector that contributes nearly £90bn to the UK economy, over a million jobs, and is strategically important in its contribution to housing, infrastructure and initiatives to stimulate UK growth.

The ESS findings show employers are struggling to fill one in three construction vacancies, up from one in four in 2013, because they can’t find people with the right skills. The density of vacancies increased by between a quarter to a half in most sectors between 2013 and 2015. The sector with the biggest increase was Construction where the density of vacancies increased by 71 per cent (from a vacancy density of 1.8 per cent in 2013 to 3.0 per cent in 2015.

To some extent this reflects the increased recruitment activity in the sector reported earlier. However, the rate of growth in skill-shortage vacancies outpaced the growth of vacancies in this sector. This indicates that Construction employers have faced significant, and increasing, challenges in recruiting sufficiently skilled labour.

The report concludes that in line with the picture of a growing UK economy, ESS 2015 provides evidence of strong labour market activity. There were, however, signs of increasing challenges for establishments in being able to recruit individuals with the required level of skills, qualifications or experience.

Civil engineers say Govt must ensure right policies are in place to build UK infrastructure

Commenting on the publication of today's UKCES report, Alasdair Reisner, Chief Executive of the Civil Engineering Contractors Association said:

"The findings of this report are worrying but not surprising.”

"We have long advocated our concerns over skills shortages which have arisen due to a lack of a clear and definitive pipeline of work; compulsory education's favour of academic over technical qualifications; and the changes to migration policy.”

"We hope that Government and policy makers take note of the report's findings to ensure that the right policies are in place to build our future world class infrastructure.”

The survey is the result of analysis of over 91,200 employers and the skills challenges they are facing, together with their response in terms of investment in skills and training. The survey was first conducted at UK wide level in 2011 and  has been conducted biennially - the 2015 survey is the third edition in the series.

Click here to download Employer Skills Survey 2015 - Skills in the labour market