Half of all companies report barriers to hiring

In October 2017, half of the companies in industry, services and construction came up against barriers that prevented them from hiring more employees on open-term or long-length fixed-term contracts. Those companies listed such reasons as the unavailability of competent labour (32%), uncertainties about the economic situation (25%), employment-related costs (22%) and regulations (17%) as their main grounds. SMEs are the category of companies that has most curbed hiring.