LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) - British employers are their most
confident about the economy in almost five years, helped by the
lifting of coronavirus restrictions, a survey showed on
Wednesday, but the lack of staff to fill jobs is a growing
problem.
The Recruitment & Employment Confederation's measure of
business confidence surged by 21 percentage points to a net
reading of +11.
That was the highest level since July 2016, shortly after
Britain voted to leave the European Union, and the first time
the index was in positive territory since 2018.
"This surge in employers' confidence in the UK economy is
remarkable," Neil Carberry, REC chief executive, said.
"However, we are seeing labour and skills shortages across
the economy right now, which the pandemic has made worse. These
could threaten to slow down the recovery if not addressed
quickly," he said. Better access to training was needed, as was
support for staff wanting to change sectors, he added.
Britain's economy has shown signs of a strong recovery from
its slump of nearly 10% in 2020, although the Bank of England
thinks it will only regain its pre-pandemic size in the final
quarter of this year.
REC said employers' confidence about hiring and investment
was the highest since March 2016 at +29.
The data was based on telephone polling of 600 employers
between March 8 and May 28.
(Writing by William Schomberg, editing by David Milliken)