SMEs, skills shortages and third-country nationals

Reliance on workers from outside the EU to address skills and labour shortages is found to increase with firm size. This suggests that small firm size may be a significant barrier to the recruitment of these workers. Increasing the possibility for micro enterprises and small firms to hire non-EU people is therefore an important challenge for the EU. Our results suggest that compared to older SMEs, younger SMEs are more likely to consider the recruitment of third-country nationals as a solution to labour and skills shortages. Further research is however needed to confirm these findings. SMEs are more likely to rely on third-country nationals to fill low to medium-skilled positions than highly skilled positions. Given the existence of skill shortages in high level occupations in Europe, it is important to investigate what factors make SMEs less likely to consider filling high skilled vacancies with third-country nationals.