Staffing problems as an obstacle to SME 2019

This statistic displays the expectations of small and medium enterprises (SME) for the extent to which staffing problems will be an obstacle to running the business in the next 12 months in the United Kingdom (UK) as of 2nd quarter 2019, by enterprise size. During the survey period, it was found that 10 percent of all SMEs expected staffing problems to be a major obstacle, compared to 76 percent that viewed it as a minor obstacle.

Small and medium enterprises' (SME) expectations of the extent to which staffing problems will be an obstacle to running the business in the next 12 months in the United Kingdom (UK) as of 2nd quarter 2019, by enterprise size*

Characteristic	Major obstacle	Moderate obstacle	Minor obstacle
0 employees	9%	10%	78%
1-9 employees	11%	17%	71%
10-49 employees	17%	28%	54%
50-249 employees	11%	23%	64%
All	10%	12%	76%

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Release date

September 2019

More information

Region

United Kingdom

Survey time period

2019

Number of respondents

4,500 respondents

Special properties

SME**

Method of interview

Face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews

Supplementary notes

* Respondents were asked to rate (from 1 to 10) the extent to which they expected staffing problems to be an obstacle to them running the business as they would wish in the next 12 months. The following scale was used:
1-4 = a minor obstacle
5-7 = a moderate obstacle
8-10 = a major obstacle
The respondent was the person in charge of managing the business’s finances. Data was collected via interview.
**In order to qualify for interview, SMEs had to meet the following criteria in addition to the quotas by size, sector and region:
Not 50%+ owned by another company
Not run as a social enterprise or as a not for profit organisation
Turnover of less than £25m

Not all percentages sum to 100. This is due to rounding.

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