Daily News

View All News

UK – Drivers most in demand and toughest to find as Christmas approaches

22 October 2014

Drivers are crucial to Christmas for most businesses but finding enough with the right qualifications is becoming a huge recruitment headache for employers, according to the latest JobsOutlook survey by the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC).

Difficulty sourcing drivers, however, is only part of a more widespread skill and talent shortage.

The report shows that 21% of employers looking to hire permanent drivers and distribution workers and 23% of those wanting to recruit through agencies last month were concerned about driver shortages. Employers were more worried about filling driver vacancies than any other type of job.

Across their wider workforces, a lack of available capacity is increasingly jeopardising some employers’ ability to meet November and December’s additional demand for their goods and services. In September, 91% of employers in the survey said they had little or no capacity to take on more work – the fourth consecutive month that the figure has been at or above 90%.

With unemployment falling faster than expected, finding suitable candidates is likely to go on being tough, while prospects for those with the right skills are going to be very good. The majority (89%) of employers said they would increase their permanent workforce in the next three months. Only 4% planned to decrease numbers.

Employers with 200 or more employees are the major engine of jobs growth for permanent and short-term hires with those employers more than twice as likely to expect to add to headcount compared with microbusinesses.

Kevin Green, CEO of the REC, said: “Recruiters are telling us that drivers are particularly hard to find. People are put off entering the sector by the high costs of things like training and insurance with the new Certificate of Professional Competence requirements compounding the difficulties.”

“With peak time for deliveries coming up in November and December, shortages are an immediate problem and one that will only get worse in the longer term. There are almost as many qualified drivers aged over 60 as there are under 30. We need to see more employers offering driver training and accreditation. The government could help by providing some pump priming funds.”

“The UK’s workforce is lean with minimal spare capacity and growing shortages of workers with the skills to fill the jobs that are currently available. As employers compete more intensely in the jobs market for the skills they need to grow there will be upward pressure on salaries in the months ahead,” Mr Green concluded.

This month’s JobsOutlook report shows that:

  • 89% of employers plan to increase their permanent staff in the next three months.
  • 77% of employers plan increase their permanent staff in the next four to twelve months.
  • 45% plan to increase their temporary staff in the next three months.
  • 38% plan to increase their temp staff in the next four to twelve months.
  • 65% of employers are using agency workers to provide short-term access to key skills