Employees are feeling the most secure at work for four years
but skills shortages continue to intensify, according to CBI research released today.
The research by CBI and William M Mercer shows that 27 per
cent of respondents claim that employees thought jobs were more secure in 2000,
with 21 per cent claiming their job was less secure.
But employers are being increasingly hard hit by skills
shortages, with 39 per cent of firms claiming that this had a significant
impact on competitiveness compared with 23 per cent in 1999.
Susan Anderson, CBI’s director of human resources policy, said,
“The economy has been in good shape in recent years and that has led to
increasing job security, despite the global slowdown.”
But she warned, “Rising skills shortages are a worry, but
firms responded to the challenge by spending money on training and now is the
time for the government to do its bit by delivering higher educational
standards.”
Firms responded to the skills shortage by increasing their
investment in training, with 61 per cent per cent of firms reporting a rise in
training expenditures compared to 49 per cent the year before.
