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New information on skill shortages

Statistics New Zealand

Thursday 23 April 2009, 11:56AM

By Statistics New Zealand

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Forty-seven percent of businesses reported that skilled vacancies were hard to fill, Statistics New Zealandsaid today.

The Business Operations Survey 2008 asked businesses about skill shortages and vacancies,including reasons behind both, for the first time, covering the financial year ending August 2008.

The most common reason businesses reported for vacancies being hard to fill was applicants lacking the"desired attitude, motivation, or personality", with 34 percent of all businesses indicating this reason.

This release details some of the statistics collected by the Business Operations Survey, which includessections on business operations, use of ICT, and strategy and skills.

The most common skill reported by businesses that existing staff most needed to improve was customerservice or sales skills, which was reported by 27 percent of businesses.

The range of skills varied acrossthe different types of industries, depending on the nature of work undertaken.

The Business Operations Survey also asked businesses how they connected to and used the Internet.Levels of broadband Internet connection for businesses were high.

Eighty-nine percent of all businessesused broadband to connect to the Internet during 2008.

The levels of broadband connections was highacross all industries, except for the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry where only 68 percent ofbusinesses use broadband.

Finance related activities (such as online banking, invoicing or making online payments) were the mostcommon business use of the Internet, with 85 percent of businesses reporting this activity.

The majority of business operations activities (such as export sales, tourism sales, overseas holdings andownership) have remained at similar levels between 2007 and 2008.

This release presents a selection of statistics from the Business Operations Survey. A full set of all resultstables will be released on 29 April 2009

See also the Hot Off The Press information release Business Operations Survey: 2008.

Table1

  A B C D E F G H I J K L M
1 Table 1                        
2  Business Activities
3 Last financial year(1)
4                          
5   Total number of businesses(2) Businesses with export sales Business with tourism sales Businesses with overseas ownership Businesses with overseas holdings Businesses that invested in expansion
6
7 2007 2008 2007 2008 2007 2008 2007 2008 2007 2008
8 2007 2008 Percent(3)
9                          
10 Business size(4)                        
11 6–19 employees 26,316 26,538 14 12 18 18 4 5 2 2 18 20
12 20–49 employees 6,342 6,270 21 20 18 16 8 8 4 4 26 24
13 50–99 employees 1,758 1,779 27 28 16 16 17 18 7 6 31 30
14 100+ employees 1,467 1,485 31 29 18 19 30 32 12 12 39 39
15                          
16 Industry                        
17 Agriculture, forestry and fishing 3,042 3,039 31 31 4 6 6 5 3 1 28 34
18 Mining 99 105 12 17 0 0 21 23 3 6 45 29
19 Manufacturing 5,442 5,343 38 38 10 10 8 9 5 5 29 28
20 Electricity, gas, water                        
21 and waste services(5) 102 105 3 3 6 6 9 14 6 6 41 43
22 Construction 3,693 3,786 2 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 25 26
23 Wholesale trade 2,961 2,955 39 32 10 9 22 22 5 8 19 17
24 Retail trade 4,437 4,335 5 5 26 27 1 3 0 0 13 13
25 Accommodation and food services 3,975 4,140 6 0 69 67 3 3 2 1 14 15
26 Transport, postal and warehousing 1,440 1,419 8 7 14 10 9 7 6 1 28 31
27 Information media and                        
28 telecommunications 357 357 23 23 24 18 24 18 8 5 31 36
29 Financial and insurance services 582 552 9 8 5 5 22 23 7 10 22 23
30 Rental, hiring and real estate                        
31 services 945 954 6 6 17 18 6 9 3 1 26 22
32 Professional, scientific and                        
33 technical services 3,393 3,501 18 17 4 4 9 10 5 4 13 20
34 Administrative and support services 1,332 1,374 11 12 21 26 6 8 4 3 22 21
35 Education and training 645 645 8 7 11 7 4 3 3 0 21 27
36 Health care and social assistance 1,953 1,944 0 0 5 7 1 1 0 1 13 16
37 Arts and recreation services 444 474 3 3 43 36 3 4 3 1 18 27
38 Other services 1,032 1,044 8 7 8 7 1 1 0 1 17 15
39                          
40 Overall 35,883 36,075 16 15 18 18 7 7 3 3 21 22
41                          
42 (1) This refers to the last financial year as at August of each collection period.                        
43 (2) For more information on the businesses included, refer to the technical notes of this release.                        
44 (3) Percentages are of all New Zealand businesses in each business size or industry category.                        
45 (4) Defined by rolling mean employment (RME) count. For more information on the RME count, refer to the technical notes.                        
46 (5) Results for the electricity, gas, water and waste services industry should be treated with caution due to the small number of businesses                        
47 in this category.                        
48                          
49 Note: All counts (not percentages) in this survey were randomly rounded to base 3 to protect confidentiality, so actual figures may differ                        
50 from those stated. Percentages may sum to over 100 percent as businesses may select more than one answer.                        

Table2

  A B C D E F G H I J K
1 Table 2                    
2 Finance Availability
3 Last financial year(1)
4                      
5   Total number of businesses(2) Debt Finance Equity Finance
6 Businesses requesting Available on acceptable terms Businesses requesting Available on acceptable terms
7 2007 2008 2007 2008 2007 2008 2007 2008
8 2007 2008 Percentage of all businesses Percentage of businesses requesting(3) Percentage of all businesses Percentage of businesses requesting(4)
9                      
10 Business size(4)                    
11 6–19 employees 26,316 26,538 28 28 94 87 11 13 79 76
12 20–49 employees 6,342