There was substantial growth in the number of employers active in the recruitment market in 2015 compared to 2013: 19 per cent of establishments had at least one current vacancy at the time of the Employers Skills Survey 2015 fieldwork, up from 15 per cent in 2013. Moreover, there were 928,000 reported vacancies, almost 300,00 more than two years previously (an increase of 42 per cent). This strong growth in recruitment activity was evident in all the UK countries.
Within this bouyant labour market, skill-shortage vacancies presented a growing challenge for employers in filling their vacancies. Six per cent of all employers had at least one skill shortage vacancy at the time of the survey - a significant increase from the four per cent of employers reporting such vacancies in 2013.