Employer Skills Survey: 2019

The Employer Skills Survey (ESS) is a definitive source of intelligence for understanding the skills challenges faced by employers, both in terms of their existing workforce and when recruiting, and how they respond to these challenges through investment in training and workforce development.

With 6,773 employers participating in the 2019 survey across Wales (and with 81,013 interviews across England, Northern Ireland and Wales combined), it is one of the world’s largest business surveys. 

Survey fieldwork for the latest wave took place between June and December 2019. While the findings still provide an important source of labour market intelligence, the Covid-19 outbreak in early 2020 means that the economic landscape has changed significantly since the survey fieldwork was conducted.

Main findings

• One in twenty employers in Wales had at least one skill-shortage vacancy at the time of the survey (5%), in line with 6% in 2017.
• Overall, 13% of employers reported skills gaps within their workforce, which has not changed since 2017.
• Around two-thirds of establishments in Wales expected that they would need to upskill their workforce over the next 12 months (68%).
• Around a third of employers in Wales reported that they had any employees with both qualifications and skills more advanced than were required for their current job role (34%).
• Just over three-fifths of employers in Wales (62%) had funded or arranged training for their staff over the previous 12 months, similar to levels seen throughout the ESS series began in 2011 (62% to 63%).
• One in ten (10%) employers had apprentices at the site at the time of interview and a further 6% offered apprenticeships but did not currently have any, representing a similar proportion offering apprenticeships compared with 2016 (15%) but an increase from 2014 (13%).