8th November, 2017

The EUROCHABRES Economic Survey (EES) for 2018, which was conducted within around 50,000 businesses, shows a promising forecast for 2018.  Most businesses in Europe have quite a positive outlook when it comes to 2018, since sales, employment and investment anticipations are all on the rise. However, there are increasing concerns regarding a skills imbalance. Businesses are worried that they will not be able to keep up with the increasing demand for their products/services because it is getting harder to find workers with the necessary competences.

In fact, key findings from the survey show that Domestic Demand is the largest concern for European Businesses for the year ahead. The issue of Lack of Skilled Workers places 2^nd place, whereas Labour Costs was ranked at 3^rd place. The latter is mainly attributed to an increase in inflation and decline in unemployment expectations. It is interesting to note that BREXIT was ranked last place, possibly mainly due to the fact that it shall be occurring in 2019.

Chambers are worried that if the skills imbalance is not addressed efficiently, the overall positive perspective for 2018 will be considerably impaired.

EUROCHAMBRES Economic Survey 2018 – Analysis of the results may be found here.