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Only firms in the Northern Counties report no significant labour supply problem, whilst those in South Wales report very few difficulties in obtaining sub-contractors. The situation in the Northern Counties was clearly easier in the third quarter than the second, as also were those in the Eastern Counties and Midlands in respect of direct employees, and in the South West as well as South Wales for sub-contractors.
The market was somewhat tighter for sub-contractors in the North West, for direct employees in South Wales, and under both headings in Yorkshire & Trent. However, changes in these regions appear very modest when compared with those recorded in London Region and Southern Counties, with relatively the largest rise being that in the proportion of firms in the latter of these two areas having difficulty finding direct employees. It is still London, however, that has recorded the highest percentages, in both divisions of the market. The weighted percentage of London Region respondents experiencing difficulty in obtaining skilled labour to work either as direct employees or as sub-contractors was higher still, at 83% compared with 71% for the former category and 63% for the latter.
As in the first and second quarters, it is carpenters and joiners that have shown up as the category of skilled labour most difficult to recruit, whilst the proportion saying they had difficulty hiring bricklayers also was higher in the third quarter than the second. There were again double-digit percentages of firms reporting problems with finding plasterers, and plumbers and heating and ventilating engineers, but in these segments of the market the situation appears to have been little different in the latest quarter compared with the preceding one.
There have been some regional variations in respect of these last two categories, including relatively sharp rises in the proportion of firms in Yorkshire & Trent having difficulty finding plumbers and H&V engineers, and in those for both bricklayers and carpenters and joiners in the North West.
Here also, however, the most striking changes in the numbers are in those for London and the Southern Counties. In both these regions the proportions saying they had problems recruiting carpenters and joiners to work as direct employees have risen above 50%, though there was relatively little movement in the parallel figures for recruitment of these skills on a sub-contract basis.
Another category identified as causing problems in some areas is electrical engineers. Over the country as a whole only 4% of firms said they had difficulty recruiting electricians as direct employees, whilst 8% said they were difficult to obtain as sub-contractors. In the London Region, however, the corresponding proportions were 28% and 34%, the former accounting for three quarters and the latter for half the national totals of reports of shortages involving this skill category.
First posted: 19 October 1999. Last modified: 21 January 2000.
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