
While suggesting that he wanted to overtake Germany?? the G7 country with the highest proportion of people in work ??during a speech in Ipswich, Cameron?did not put a timescale on the pledge, which he described as an inspiration he wanted to achieve.
However, many have doubted he will be able to make a dent in his target within the next five years, if it all.?According to The Bank of England and the Office for Budget Responsibility, the full employment threshold is set at five per cent unemployment. The most recent unemployment statistics from the ONS showed the UK has an unemployment rate of 5.1 per cent, meaning that 1.68m people are still unemployed. This data comes hand-in-hand with research by totaljobs, which found that 71 per cent of UK firms didn?t believe Cameron’s target would be achieved in the next five years, and that is now having repercussions in the labour market. Nearly half of British businesses anticipate that recruitment will become more difficult. To prove its point, the report?cited a large business operating in the retail sector as having said: ?As the economy continues to get stronger, finding talent becomes a bit more difficult?. This is a view shared by 31 per cent of the businesses surveyed, which believed that the time it takes to fill roles will increase in the next five years. The data also revealed that 43 per cent of jobseekers have been more selective about the roles they take. As a result, 23 per cent of businesses have experienced restricted growth due to a shrinking talent pool, with 55 per cent of bosses claiming to currently have a skills shortage in their business. Read more about the skills gap:- The ten industries desperate to fill graduate jobs
- Businesses must tackle sticky issues of skills gaps when making hiring decision
- Smashing Britain’s digital skills gap?bottleneck
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