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This report summarises the findings of the National Employer Skills Survey (NESS) 2003 for the Skillfast-UK Sector Skills Council, which covers apparel, footwear, textiles and related businesses. The NESS was commissioned by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), in partnership with the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA) and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), to provide detailed information about the extent, causes and implications of England's recruitment problems and skill gaps. It also measures employers' training activities. Key findings include: the largest companies are proportionately more likely to have hard-to-fill vacancies, but in terms of actual numbers, the largest proportion of hard-to-fill and skill shortage vacancies lie within the smallest companies; larger companies are also more likely to have skill gaps and also have the highest proportion of staff suffering from skill gaps; the main causes of hard-to-fill vacancies are a low number of applicants generally, low numbers of applicants with the required skills and a lack of experience required by the company; the main causes of skill gaps are the lack of experience of the member of staff and it appears that skill gaps are linked to recruitment difficulties; vacancies are predominantly for machine operatives, sales and customer service staff, elementary jobs and associate professionals, with this last group experiencing the highest density of skills shortage vacancies; the main occupations affected by skill gaps are machine operatives, elementary staff, managers and sales and customer service staff; the most common skills lacking in applicants are technical and practical skills, problem solving skills, customer handling skills and team working skills; the major area of skill gaps are also in the same areas; and skills that are in shortage reflect the nature of the job, e.g. sales staff are more likely to have deficiencies in communication and customer handling skills and managers lack management skills.