A Good Worker is Hard to Find: The Determinants of Skills Shortages in New Zealand Firms

Authors

  • Geoff Mason National Institute of Economic and Social Research, London
  • Penny Mok Ministry of Economic Development
  • Peter Nunns Formerly of Ministry of Economic Development
  • Phillip Stevens Ministry of Economic Development
  • Jason Timmins Department of Labour

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26686/lew.v0i0.1692

Abstract

This paper investigates the determinants of firms’ external skill shortages – that is, vacancies that are hard to fill for skill­related reasons. This paper utilises a specially­designed survey, the Business Strategy and Skills (BSS) module of the Business Operations Survey 2008 (BOS 2008). We estimate the determinants of firms reporting having vacancies and skill shortage in comparison to the non­skill­related vacancies using probit models and two­stage (Heckman) probit models with selection, to enable us to distinguish between those factors related with the firm posting a vacancy and those that make them difficult to fill. We consider a broad suite of variables, including firm’s size and industry, their market focus, R&D investment, innovation, previous performance (e.g. productivity), the degree of competition they are subject to.

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Author Biography

Penny Mok, Ministry of Economic Development

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Published

2010-11-06

Issue

2010: Labour, Employment and Work in New Zealand

Section

Articles

License

Copyright belongs to the editor and contributors.

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