RIGA, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- The number of entrepreneurs complaining about severe labor shortages and struggling to hire employees continues to grow in Latvia, showed a survey presented on Friday by the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Asked if they were concerned about availability of labor force in Latvia, 67 percent of respondents in the survey said that they were, up against 64 percent of respondents who gave the same answer in March this year.
Another 23 percent of the surveyed entrepreneurs said that they were likely to be affected by this issue soon, while 8 percent said they were not short of employees and did not expected to face the problem in a foreseeable future.
"Since we conducted our first survey last fall and another one in March 2018, the number entrepreneurs who not only worry about availability of labor force but have already had difficulties filling job vacancies has significantly increased," said Janis Endzins, chairman of the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
"This is a very serious signal to politicians that it's time to act, to think about the integration of various groups of society into the labor market and other solutions in order not to impede business growth," added Endzins.
Asked if they personally had been affected by labor shortage in Latvia, 57 percent of respondents in the survey said that they had and 31 percent said that they had had problems but a solution was eventually found. In March, the respective answers were given by 55 and 31 percent of the polled entrepreneurs.
The survey also revealed that the severest labor shortages are being reported in construction, the services sector, retail trade and health care, among others.
The survey was conducted from July 13 to 30 and included 348 top and medium-level business managers, with 52 percent of them representing the services sector, 33 percent manufacturing, and 15 percent, the trade sector.
