Survey highlights the gap between vacancies, skills
A MISMATCH between job vacancies and the skills needed to fill the roles has been picked up in official data.
Provisional data gathered in the recent Bailiwick Community Survey has also revealed that hundreds more households have been in receipt of income support or unemployment benefit in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The information was published by Policy & Resources to accompany updated proposals for improving living standards, set to be debated by the States next week. Analysis of the data is continuing ahead of the final results.
‘At the end of July it is estimated that approximately 500 more households were in receipt of financial support from either income support or unemployment benefit than might have otherwise been,’ said the report.
‘For these households, financial stress likely continues and a lack of financial independence has a tendency to erode people’s feelings of self-worth and confidence.’
On the mismatch between skills and available jobs, it said: ‘While vacancies are being advertised, the skills needed to fill these vacancies do not necessarily match well with the skills of those unemployed.
‘As at 1 August, about 21% of those claiming unemployment benefit reported having skills in administration and finance, and 13% in retail, but these sectors represent only 3% and 6% respectively of the 192 vacancies advertised with the Job Centre in July.
‘This means that the economy has a shortage of skills and labour in areas like construction, where reports suggest there is a significant demand for services, at the same time as Guernsey is experiencing a higher than typical level of unemployment.’
Susie Crowder, of the Bright Futures charity, said skills was a major challenge. The charity is focused on supporting lifelong learning amid major changes to the employment market, such as technology changes as well as more recently the pandemic.
‘It highlights a more chronic problem that Guernsey has failed to address over decades. That is how we support people in their learning journeys over their lifetimes,’ she said.
‘It has been so lacking, particularly if they are dislocated now. We have put a proposal to the States that we need something like an extended training initiative to keep people current to the needs to the job market now.’
