IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/sbusec/v65y2025i2d10.1007_s11187-025-01035-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Firms’ expectations about skill shortages

Author

Listed:
  • Helena Antonie Baier

    (Technical University of Munich)

  • Philipp Lergetporer

    (Technical University of Munich)

  • Thomas Rittmannsberger

    (TUM School of Management, Technical University of Munich)

Abstract

Shortages of skilled labor present a critical challenge for economies worldwide. We surveyed over 1100 SME managers in Germany, revealing that most expect skill shortages to worsen and adversely affect their operations. Providing expert forecasts on future shortages to a randomly chosen subgroup of respondents barely affects the expected impacts of skill shortages on their firm, planned mitigation strategies, or business performance expectations. These limited effects likely stem from the already high priority placed on skill shortages, attenuating the impact of additional information. Our findings suggest that typical information campaigns may be ineffective, pointing to a need for more actionable strategies in addressing skill shortages.

Suggested Citation

  • Helena Antonie Baier & Philipp Lergetporer & Thomas Rittmannsberger, 2025. "Firms’ expectations about skill shortages," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 65(2), pages 1095-1112, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:65:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1007_s11187-025-01035-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s11187-025-01035-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11187-025-01035-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11187-025-01035-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • M50 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - General
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:65:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1007_s11187-025-01035-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.