Businesses warn most industries now suffering damaging staff shortages

Most industries are now suffering damaging staff shortages because of an exodus of foreign workers quitting the State because of high prices or not coming at all because of work visa issues, businesses have warned.

Blue collar jobs, such as hospitality, construction and retail, are the hardest hit, but the crisis is spreading to white collar office and higher-paid jobs, according to ISME, which represents small to medium sized firms.

“A lot of office and back-office operations, in the public sector as well as technology and pharmaceuticals, are struggling to cope. At this stage there is a job for anyone who wants it,” said ISME chief executive Neil McDonnell.

The latest employment figures show that 162,578 people are signing on the Live Register, including 72,647 long-term unemployed, while 75,413 more people are still receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP).

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Immigrants from the likes of Poland and the Baltics – a mainstay of the Irish workforce in recent decades – are returning home or moving to southeast Europe, where housing prices and the cost of living are cheaper, he said.

"We are going to have to invite people from Ukraine, South Africa and Brazil to fill jobs in the health service, nursing homes, hospitals, IT as well as blue collar jobs like plumbing, electrics and construction," Mr McDonnell added.

Employers are increasingly looking to workers from outside the European Economic Area to fill vacancies: “There is no point in the Government saying they are going to bring down house prices when there is no one to build them.”

Mr McDonnell said a huge backlog in the work permits/visa system is exacerbating a problem which emerged even before the pandemic, during which many foreign nationals returned to their native countries and have remained.

Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mr Robert Troy has said work visas are now taking 21 weeks to process, with 10,500 applications delayed.

Retention

The business group Ibec says “talent attraction and retention” is now the biggest worry facing chief executives this year, with almost 30 per cent saying it was their top concern. Next was business costs at 16 per cent.

Seven in 10 CEOs said recruiting staff was in their top five priorities for the year ahead, while six in 10 said the availability of “specific skills/talent” headed their list of “key challenges” for the year ahead.

Staff shortages are hitting every type of business, but especially manufacturing, food, food processing and hospitality, Fergal O’Brien, Ibec’s director of lobbying and influence, told The Irish Times.

Construction, logistics as well as high-skilled roles in technology were also bearing the brunt with “very widespread significant shortages”.

“Roles going unfilled means business opportunities are being missed. It is constraining growth. It is a growing issue, with almost every business saying it is a major constraint or concern. Lots of businesses across a whole range of sectors are operating at reduced capacity, reduced opening hours,” he said.