The Employer Skills Survey (ESS) 2022
The Employer Skills Survey (ESS) 2022 is a large-scale telephone survey of 72,918 employers (between June 2022 and March 2023) across the UK, providing labour market information on the skills challenges faced by employers. This report summarises the findings of the ESS 2022 as they relate to the “Primary Sector & Utilities”.
Of the headline indicators:
- The proportion of vacancies in the Primary Sector & Utilities that were classified as skills shortages fell from 33% in 2017 to 28% in 2022.
- Skills shortage were highest amongst the Skilled Trades occupational group – an occupation that is crucial to the energy and utilities sector.
- When it comes to recruiting, businesses in the Primary Sector and Utilities were the most likely to have used just a single method (36%), as well as to have relied on “word of mouth” only (22%).
- Investment in training (in terms of the amount spent per person trained) is higher in the Primary Sector and Utilities sector (£3,300 per person trained) than the national average (£3,000 per person trained).