Companies are facing skill shortages at critical levels that will restrain economic activity this year unless the issue is addressed, a leading business lobby group has warned. The British Chambers of Commerce, which represents thousands of companies, said that labour and skills shortages were likely to be the biggest challenge that firms face this year. Companies need to confront the problem by investing in skills and the government needs to provide the certainty to encourage them to spend, it added in its economic survey for the final quarter of last year. Concerns about recruitment have been mounting as unemployment falls to a 42-year low of 4.3 per cent. Companies that recruit much of their skilled workforce from overseas fear that the UK’s departure from the
The widening skills gap is the "biggest drag on business" according to the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), a lobbying group which represents thousands of companies. It said that while there were more apprenticeships than ever before in recent years, they had not been enough for employers and workers alike.