Survey finds Irish businesses struggling to recruit employees

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ireland are struggling to find adequately skilled individuals to fill a variety of roles, according to a Chambers Ireland Skills Gap survey.

Nine in 10 respondents said they were facing significant challenges in recruiting employees with the right skills and qualifications.

The skills gap was found to be most acute among micro-businesses, which are defined as those with fewer than 10 employees.

The Irish hair and beauty industry has been vocal about the skills crisis it has been dealing with, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic when employees left their salon jobs to work in different industries, or operate on the black market. Last year, the Hair and Beauty Industry Confederation (Habic) said that the problem was worst the sector had ever seen. 

"The skills shortage predates the onset of Covid-19, however the pandemic has exacerbated a skills crisis far beyond levels previously seen," said Habic CEO Margaret O’Rourke Doherty.

"Due to the pandemic, many employees retrained and moved sectors, branched out on their own, or are taking time out of the workplace to raise a family and unfortunately some have opted to work in the shadow economy. A combination of various factors has left a significant skills gap and job opportunities nationally."

Meanwhile, a separate survey has found that that over half of Irish SMEs have increased prices to deal with the impact of inflation.

Around 52pc of Irish small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have introduced price increases, according to the latest research from Linked Finance.

The research found that price hikes were continuing, despite the slowdown in the rate of inflation.

The survey also noted that just over a third of businesses have opted to cut operational costs, while 19pc have looked into diversifying their product offering.