Industry’s concern for labour shortages reaches new high, according to survey

The ongoing labour shortage inflicting the engineering services industry is becoming more of an issue, according to the latest industry survey. 

Almost half of all respondents to the latest engineering services industry survey, which is backed by the ECA, BESA, SELECT and SNIPEF, cited labour shortages as their number one concern. This metric has been increasing steadily, with just 32% of firms listing it as their biggest concern in Q4 2022 and 42% in Q1 2023. 

The ongoing labour shortages within the engineering services industry comes despite firms reporting healthy revenue growth. While that growth is good to see, many are concerned about the future if some of the key issues – including labour shortages – continue to plague the industry. 

While labour shortages is the single biggest issue facing the industry, according to the survey, materials shortages and fixed pricing in light of inflation were also cited as the second and third largest concerns, respectively. 

Firms within the engineering services industry are trying to address their shortages, with a growing number of electrotechnical businesses having vacancies in their organisation. In fact, the number of respondents with open positions now stands at 57%, rising from 54% in Q1 2023. 

Unfortunately, the majority of those with vacancies have struggled to fill those roles. There have been a number of reasons for this, with 50% noting that applicants simply lacked sufficient knowledge to do the job, while 49% said applicants’ pay expectations were too high. 

Despite these findings, a significant number of contractors are expanding their directly employed workforce rather than choosing agency labour to plug the skills gap.

Rob Driscoll, ECA Director of Legal and Business, noted, “Turnover doesn’t typically reduce when inflation is high. The real test is maintaining future order books and margins. As the vast majority of survey respondents are SMEs, I am heartened to see how switched-on our Members are despite a tough business environment. ECA remains ready to help its Members mitigate the risks of an uncertain economy.

“The lack of enough skilled workers jeopardises our sector’s recovery. It leaves the industry vuln