The firm side of labour shortages: Five new facts from the OECD-GFP Employer Survey

We study labour shortages using firm-level survey data covering 34 OECD countries, Brazil, and South Africa over 2022-2023. The analysis is based on a harmonised cross-country online survey of employers, combined with regression analyses that relate reported recruitment difficulties to firm characteristics. Our results yield five main findings. First, labour shortages are widespread: around 80% of firms report recruitment difficulties, and one-third indicate that most or all vacancies are hard to fill. Second, firms facing greater shortages are more likely to experience changing skill needs and skill mismatches. Third, young firms report higher recruitment difficulties, while small firms encounter increasing constraints as they grow, suggesting that shortages can hinder both entry and scale-up. Fourth, recruitment difficulties are more common among firms investing in green, digital, and Artificial Intelligence technologies. Fifth, the nature of shortages differs by productivity level: low-productivity firms attribute shortages to low wages and poor working conditions, and report that shortages lead to production losses; by contrast, high-productivity firms report difficulties in finding the right skill profiles, prompting responses such as automation, investment in training, and organisational changes. Overall, the findings highlight the heterogeneous nature of labour shortages across firms, and their potential implications for firm dynamics.