1、30/09/2022INDEPENDEN T P U B L I C AT I O N BY#0834R AC O N T EU R.NE TTHE GLOBALTALENT ECONOMYHOW TO RE-ENGAGE QUIET QUITTERSREMOTE WORK REQUIRES BENEFITS RETHINK1606WILL THE HPI VISA SOLVE THE SKILLS GAP?19R A C O N T E U R.N E T03hen job vacancies soared to record levels after lock-down,many empl
2、oyers were taken by surprise.Companies needed more staff as the economy roared back to life,but they found many older workers had retired,younger people were flocking back to higher education and thousands with long-term sickness had opted out of the labour force.Even the highest pay rises in a dec-
3、ade werent enough to tackle the worsening skills shortages.But could the tables be about to turn as the economy hurtles towards a like-ly recession later this year?So far,the signs arent great.Va-cancies have come down a bit and experts believe the post-pandemic jobs boom may have peaked.Yet the UK
4、labour market is still as tight asa drum,with UK unemployment falling to just 3.6%in the three months to the end of July the low-est it has been since 1974.“I think the labour market will re-main tight for the next decade and businesses need to prepare them-selves for a very difficult recruiting env
5、ironment,”says Neil Carberry,head of the Recruitment and Em-ployment Confederation(REC).“Demand will of course wax and wane with the economy.But there are nonetheless some big and un-derlying long-term issues putting pressure on the market.”If Carberry is right,firms must ad-just.According to the Fe
6、deration of Small Businesses(FSB),more than three-quarters of small UK busi-nesses have struggled to recruit in the past 12 months,with 82%blam-ing a lack of candidates with the right experience,and 60%citing a low number of applicants generally.One of the most challenging long-term issues facing th