SMEs' difficulty hiring staff with the right skills set in Europe 2023

As of October 2023, the countries in Europe where small and medium-sized businesses self-reported the greatest difficulty in hiring staff with the correct skills for open positions in the past two years were all in south-east Europe and the Mediterranean. More than half of respondents in Greece and North Macedonia found finding qualified applicants very difficult, while a similarly high share was reported in Bulgaria, Malta, and Cyprus. On the other hand, nearly a third of respondents in the UK and Ireland responded that it was not difficult at all to find staff with adequate skills. Overall, in the European Union, over 60 percent of SMEs found it at least slightly difficult to hire the right staff over the past two years.