GovWire

Details

Headline Findings

Skill shortage vacancies - hard to fill vacancies due to skill shortages

• The incidence of skill shortage vacancies in DCMS Sectors is 9.7%, in line with All Sectors (9.8%). Creative industries (7.2%) and the cultural sector (6.8%) have a lower proportion of skills shortage vacancies than All Sectors, although there are some sub-sectoral differences e.g. a higher proportion in the operation of historical sites and similar visitor attractions (17.9%).

• 33.4% of all vacancies in DCMS Sectors are attributed to skills shortages, lower than 35.5% for All Sectors. Creative industries (33%), tourism industries (30.6%), the cultural sector (30%) and gambling (18.5%) have lower skill shortage vacancy density than All Sectors, while this is higher for sport (41.2%).

Skill gaps - within the workforce

• The skills gaps incidence of DCMS Sector business is 15.8%, in line with All Sectors (15.1%). Creative industries (10.5%) and cultural sector (11.7%) have the lowest percentage of businesses where at least one member of staff is judged to be not fully proficient in their role, and gambling sector (27.3%) has the highest.

• 6.4% of the DCMS Sector workforce have skills gaps, higher than All Sectors (5.7%). Compared to All Sectors, skills gaps are higher in tourism industries (8.3%) and lower in the civil society sector (4.5%). Some sub-sectors, e.g. advertising and marketing (15.3%), have higher skills gap density than All Sectors.

About this release

This release is an Official Statistic in Development used to provide an estimate of skills shortages and skills gaps in the DCMS sectors.

This is the second publication of these statistics and covers the year 2022 (the most recently available data from the Department for Educations Employer Skills Survey). These statistics cover the whole of the UK (England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland) and are therefore not directly comparable to the 2019 estimates previously published which excluded Scotland. Estimates for 2022 excluding Scotland have been provided in the data tables to allow for some comparison.

Estimates are provided for DCMS sectors, sub-sectors and the Audio Visual sector. Breakdowns are provided by region but disclosure control is applied where sample sizes were too low. The DCMS sectors are:

• Civil Society
• Creative Industries
• Cultural Sector
• Gambling
• Sport
• Tourism

Further information is available in the accompanying technical document along with details of methods and data limitations.

Release date

2 May 2024

Official statistics in development

These statistics are labelled as official statistics in development. Official statistics in development are official statistics that are undergoing development and will be tested with users, in line with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. These DCMS sector skills shortages and gaps estimates give an indication of the nature and extent of skills issues in DCMS sectors. They can be used alongside our other economic estimates and to give a deeper understanding of the performance of DCMS sectors to the UK economy. They are being published as official statistics in development because:

• there is a limited time series currently available. The previous statistics published for 2019 excluded Scotland, so the UK figures this year are not directly comparable.
• we will be seeking user feedback on the usefulness of the statistics, the suitability of the measures used and how clearly the statistics are communicated, including explanations about quality.

We will look to publish a comparable UK backseries of the DCMS Sector Skills Shortages and Skills Gaps data in the future. Following this development work, and some user engagement we will make an assessment about whether the statistics still remain in development or if the label can be removed.

Feedback

DCMS aims to continuously improve the quality of estimates and better meet user needs. DCMS welcomes feedback on this release. Feedback should be sent to DCMS via email at evidence@dcms.gov.uk.

Office for Statistics Regulation

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards by emailing evidence@dcms.gov.uk. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

Pre-release access

The accompanying pre-release access document lists ministers and officials who have received privileged early access to this release. In line with best practice, the list has been kept to a minimum and those given access for briefing purposes had a maximum of 24 hours.

Contact

Responsible statistician: Anna Maccagnan

For any queries or feedback, please contact evidence@dcms.gov.uk.