Employer Skills Survey in UK – Key findings across the ESS series (2015 – 2019)

The UK economy has seen sustained economic growth after emerging from the recession of the late 2000s, and this has continued since the last wave of Employer Skills Survey (ESS) in 2017. ONS data shows that at the second quarter of 2019, when ESS 2019 fieldwork began, job creation was at its highest level since records began (an employment rate of 76.1%).29 Despite this, UK productivity is still behind most other G7 countries. In the second quarter of 2019 output per hour fell by 0.5%, the largest quarterly fall in productivity in five years.30 This underlies why developing a more proficient, skilled workforce is such a high priority for government. The Employer Skills Survey is a key tool to measure the incidence, nature and impact of skills issues facing employers, and how these skills needs are changing over time.

Despite positive trends in job creation, the economic landscape remained uncertain at the time survey fieldwork was conducted (June and December 2019) as the UK negotiated an EU withdrawal deal. The 2019 survey serves as a watershed in the ESS series, and the last undertaken before the UK’s official withdrawal from the EU in January 2020.

Key findings across the ESS series (2015 – 2019) for England, Northern Ireland and Wales

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story @ Employer Skills Survey 2019: research report