Exploring Local Areas, Skills and Unemployment: employer case studies

This report is part of an analytical series using the 2001 Employers Skill Survey (ESS2001) (statistical report indexed at TD/TNC 69.214). The Exploring Local Areas, Skills and Unemployment (ELASU) analysis was designed to explore the relationship between relatively high levels of unemployment and hard-to-fill vacancies in some local areas, first identified in ESS1999 and subsequently referred to as an 'apparent paradox'. ELASU was multi-faceted, involving three main elements: an exploratory data analysis at local area level (report indexed at TD/TNC 73.363); multivariate econometric analysis of the relationship between vacancies and local unemployment (report indexed at TD/TNC 73.366); and qualitative interviews with employers who had experienced recruitment difficulties in areas where both levels of unemployment and vacancies were relatively high (this current report). A synthesis report is indexed at TD/TNC 73.367. With an economy nearing full employment, there are still a significant number of people registered as unemployed, often concentrated in specific localities. At the same time, the ESS reveals a number of employers with hard-to-fill vacancies, many of which are in relatively low skilled jobs that could potentially be filled by anyone. The relationship between relatively high rates of unemployment and hard-to-fill vacancies is explored using a case study analysis of employers' recruitment practices in three local labour markets exhibiting these features. The aim was to understand why the unemployed were not filling the hard-to-fill vacancies. The report examines issues associated with why some vacancies were hard to fill, employers' attitudes towards unemployed and economically inactive people and their appropriateness as recruits, the inefficient operation of local labour markets in supplying the skill sets required by employers, occupational and/or geographical immobility and the effects on employment and recruitment, and wages and conditions of employment and their effects on employers' capacity to attract and retain labour. The evidence suggests that employers who have increased training and development of their staff, have had some success in avoiding recruitment difficulties. Show less