Telford firm's new survey reveals 'acute skills shortage' amid cooling jobs market

The report, conducted by Telford-based workwear and uniform supplier MyWorkwear, showed that 64 per cent of the 107 companies surveyed are suffering from an acute skills shortage - and only 45 per cent of them believe the Government will be able to solve the crisis.

The results revealed that over half (55 per cent) admitted that they are struggling to recruit or retain existing staff, whilst, going against popular opinion, nearly three quarters of respondents thought the Employment Rights Bill will have a positive impact on the current skills landscape.

Earlier this month, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds announced a £275m investment in technical training and apprenticeships as the centrepiece of the Government's long-awaited industrial strategy - a move seemingly backed by respondents to the survey.

Businesses polled suggested that more industry-specific training would help address the shortage, and this was closely followed by nearly a third of firms calling for an increase in funding support.

The Government said its new strategy was designed to address skills shortages in engineering, defence and high-growth sectors such as battery production and advanced manufacturing. 

Branded workwear provider MyWorkwear said it has seen the impact of the skills shortage firsthand through customer ordering patterns and day-to-day conversations.

Based in Halesfield, the company employs around 30 people at its headquarters and works with businesses in 15 different sectors of industry.

“Having been in business since 1976 and working with so many industries, we often pick up trends across a wide variety of sectors, and the skills shortage is definitely something impacting a large majority of our customers,” explained James Worthington, co-managing director at MyWorkwear.

“There is little confidence from businesses that the Government’s approach will solve the crisis we’re seeing, and this is undermining confidence with 60 per cent feeling the situation has worsened over the last six months. You can’t really make the most of new opportunities, if you don’t have the talent in place to meet customer requirements.”

“A lot of the measures introduced have fallen on deaf ears so far and I believe there’s a lot of scepticism around the latest industrial strategy and whether it will actually benefit small to medium-sized companies.”

The MyWorkwear report did show some positivity for the workwear industry, with almost 80 per cent of businesses stating that branded workwear boosts employee pride and 68 per cent indicating that it helps them to retain staff in what is a very volatile jobs market.