Employers report skills shortages worth quarter of a million vacancies — and blame pay and training, not the school curriculum
This is a UK-wide survey, not an England figure — flagged throughout, because the rest of this chapter is England only. The employers who report these shortages don't point to GCSEs as the cause.
Employers reported 250,500 skills-shortage vacancies across the UK in 2024 — vacancies they say are hard to fill specifically because applicants lack the skills, qualifications or experience needed. That is 27% of all vacancies, down from 36% in 2022.
A UK figure, not an England one
The Employer Skills Survey covers the whole UK, unlike every other page in this chapter, which is England only. This page states the geography on every figure rather than silently treating a UK number as an England one.
The scale, and how it's measured
Skills-shortage vacancies, UK
Skills-shortage vacancies rose nearly six-fold between 2011 and 2022, then fell by more than half in 2024 — the first fall in the survey's history, though still above pre-2022 levels.
View data table
| Year | Skills-shortage vacancies |
|---|---|
| 2011 | 91500 |
| 2013 | 146200 |
| 2015 | 209500 |
| 2017 | 226500 |
| 2022 | 531200 |
| 2024 | 250500 |
United Kingdom · Source: DfE/Skills England, "Employer Skills Survey 2024: full UK research report" (IFF Research) · as of 2024 wave (November 2025 (updated June 2026))
A survey estimate, not a census
The Employer Skills Survey is a telephone survey of 22,712 UK employer worksites with two or more staff, weighted to represent the whole UK employer population — a survey estimate with a margin of error, not a census. Fieldwork ran June 2024 to January 2025. Every SSV figure on this page is an estimate from that survey, not an exact count.
Where the shortages are
Construction had the highest skills-shortage rate of any sector in 2024: 45% of its vacancies (24,400) were skills-shortage vacancies — up from 36% in 2017, though down from a peak of 52% in 2022.
Skills-shortage vacancies as a share of all vacancies, by sector
Construction, education and manufacturing have the highest skills-shortage rates; public administration the lowest.
View data table
| Period | SSV share of vacancies |
|---|---|
| Construction | 45 |
| Education | 36 |
| Manufacturing | 34 |
| Primary sector & utilities | 34 |
| Arts & other services | 33 |
| Business services | 31 |
| Wholesale & retail | 25 |
| Hotels & restaurants | 22 |
| Transport & storage | 22 |
| Health & social work | 21 |
| Information & communications | 17 |
| Public administration | 7 |
United Kingdom · Source: DfE/Skills England, "Employer Skills Survey 2024: full UK research report" (IFF Research) · as of 2024 (November 2025 (updated June 2026))
Skilled trades — electricians, plumbers, carpenters, chefs and similar roles — have the highest shortage rate of any occupation group, both in 2022 and 2024.
- Skilled trades48% (46,800)
- Caring, leisure & other services30% (32,900)
- Professionals29% (51,800)
- Machine operatives29% (25,900)
- Associate professionals24% (25,200)
- Managers, directors & senior officials21% (7,300)
- Administrative19% (14,500)
- Elementary occupations18% (19,800)
- Sales & customer service16% (11,600)
DfE/Skills England, "Employer Skills Survey 2024: full UK research report" (IFF Research), published November 2025 (updated June 2026).
View as table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Skilled trades | 48% (46,800) |
| Caring, leisure & other services | 30% (32,900) |
| Professionals | 29% (51,800) |
| Machine operatives | 29% (25,900) |
| Associate professionals | 24% (25,200) |
| Managers, directors & senior officials | 21% (7,300) |
| Administrative | 19% (14,500) |
| Elementary occupations | 18% (19,800) |
| Sales & customer service | 16% (11,600) |
NHS vacancies, for scale — a separate England-only figure
The NHS reported a 6.5% vacancy rate (97,475 posts) in England for year ending 31 march 2026, including a 5% rate (21,643 posts) for registered nursing, midwifery and health visiting — both down on the year before. Labelled "Experimental Statistics" by NHS England itself, and covers England only — the NHS is devolved, so there is no UK-wide equivalent figure.
"In demand" is not the same claim as "in short supply"
Two different measures, kept separate on this page
Skills England's own words: "This assessment of demand is quantitative and will differ to other assessments which use different methods. It assesses the current level of demand for an occupation and not where there is a shortage of workers for an occupation." And: "An occupation categorised in 'critical' or 'elevated' demand does not mean there is a shortage of workers or a skills mismatch for that occupation." Demand (this section) and shortage (the ESS figures above) are different measures, built differently, and this page does not merge them into one number.
Skills England — the newer body responsible for this analysis — identifies 62 occupations (of 368 it assesses) in "critical" demand, employing 5.1 million workers (15.4% of UK employment), and a further 125 in "elevated" demand, employing 10.9 million (32.9%). 74.8% of workers in critical-demand occupations need training below degree level — most of what the economy is short of does not run through a university route.
What employers actually say causes this
This chapter has already shown that GCSE Design & Technology entries fell sharply over the same decades that construction has reported a persistent skills shortage (see What are we teaching?). That is a fact worth showing — it is not evidence that one caused the other. Here is what the survey that actually asks employers says instead.
Why vacancies are hard to fill
"Just over half of hard-to-fill vacancies (53%) were felt to be difficult to fill because of issues related to the quality of applicants" — a low number of applicants with the right skills, attitude, work experience or qualifications. Other reasons cited: poor pay or conditions for the role (22%), and remote location or poor public transport (11%).
A high shortage rate does not always mean a real local skills gap
"A high incidence of SSVs does not necessarily imply those skills are lacking in the local labour market, since it may simply be that those with the requisite skills are not interested in applying due to the unattractiveness of the role (aspects such as the pay or conditions)."
Employer investment in training has fallen
Employer financial investment in training has fallen 18.5% in real terms since 2011, and 29.4% per employee — the report's own top-line diagnosis, not this page's inference. Employer engagement with apprenticeships has also stalled: the share of employers offering them was unchanged since 2022, while the share planning to in future fell.
What the report does not say
A full-text search of the 210-page report found no discussion of GCSE subject choice, school curriculum, or secondary education as a cause of skills shortages anywhere in the document — "GCSE" appears only describing what employers look for when recruiting (53% want GCSE English/maths at grade A*–C), never as an explanation for why vacancies go unfilled.
Last verified 2026-08-31. Data: DfE/Skills England, "Employer Skills Survey 2024: full UK research report" (IFF Research).
Related pages
- In this sectionFrom classroom to workThe rest of this chapter — what school leads to.
- In this sectionWhat are we teaching?The subject-entry trends this page deliberately does not treat as a cause of shortages.
- Leaves this sectionEmploymentThe wider labour-market picture skills shortages sit inside.
- In this sectionEducationThe other chapters, and how this section is built.
Scope and definitions
Geography varies by figure on this page only
Unlike every other page in this chapter, this one mixes UK-wide (Employer Skills Survey, Skills England) and England-only (NHS vacancies) figures, because that is the geography each source actually publishes at. Every figure states which.
Demand, shortage and construction-decline are three separate claims
This page shows what is in demand (Skills England), what employers say is short (the Employer Skills Survey), and, elsewhere in this chapter, what subjects pupils study less of — deliberately without merging them into one story the evidence does not support.