UK employers struggling to fill roles say candidates are being too picky

Company bosses have revealed the roles they are finding hardest to fill-and the key reasons why many are being rejected.

Poor attitudes have been cited in as many as six in ten applicant rejections, while many business leaders express concern that they are unable to recruit enough highly skilled specialists.

The findings are based on a recent survey highlighting how London-based firms are struggling to attract suitable candidates, with many applicants described as overly selective or demanding, particularly when it comes to .

In the competitive UK job market, younger jobseekers are increasingly requesting remote working options. This trend has grown since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, which was first declared five years ago this week.

Senior executives are now voicing concern over the lasting effects of this shift. A poll conducted by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), surveying 1,200 managers, found that since January last year, two in five of those who witnessed widespread remote or hybrid work during the pandemic have felt compelled to bring employees back to the office. About one in seven companies has already begun reducing flexible working hours.

According to the , more than a third of firms surveyed reported a lack of essential skills among applicants, with one in five citing subpar English proficiency. According to additional MailOnline analysis, 61% of employers said candidates lacked the "required attitude"-a rise from 58% the previous year.

The most commonly reported barrier to hiring was insufficient work experience, flagged in 72% of cases-up from 67% the year before. A lack of appropriate qualifications was also an issue in 63% of cases.

The most challenging roles to fill were professional or highly skilled specialist positions, cited by 63% of companies-an increase from 55% the previous year and 49% the year before that. These were followed by technical and skilled support roles (58%), skilled trades (40%), and sales and customer service positions (36%).

Mark Hilton, Policy Delivery Director at BusinessLDN, told MailOnline: "Firms are finding it more difficult to fill professional and highly-skilled roles than any other, with demand particularly strong in fast-evolving sectors like tech, financial services and life sciences. At the same time, more and more businesses are telling us that job applicants don't have the right attitude, work experience or qualifications."

He added: "The need for businesses, policymakers and training providers to work together to ensure that our education system produces the skills firms need has never been greater.

"The current curriculum review should reform our work experience model to make it more focused on targeted learning. We also need an education system that better embeds cross-cutting skills that companies value highly, such as team-working, resilience and proactive problem solving."

The CMI survey also found that many firms are reversing remote . Over half of the companies reported difficulties in recruitment. In the sample of 1,000 companies, 22% judged job seekers to have insufficient English skills, while 20% highlighted poor basic maths. The research also revealed that 82% of businesses in London currently have live vacancies-an increase from 80% the previous year.

This all comes amid financial pressures on employers following Budget in October and her recent Spring Statement. These included raising employer National Insurance contributions to 15% and lowering the payment threshold from £9,100 to £5,000-despite previous commitments not to raise NI for working people.

Petra Wilton, Policy Director at the CMI, told MailOnline: "The pandemic taught us invaluable lessons about the workplace-that flexibility boosts productivity, that trust in employees drives success, and that great managers are the backbone of any thriving organisation. Rolling back these gains risks eroding the trust and goodwill that have been built over the last few years."

Official figures show that two out of five UK employees now work from home at least part of the time, with two-thirds of managers also doing so. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 28% of employees follow a hybrid working model, while 13% work exclusively from home.

New data from Survation shows that 45% of people in senior positions-such as managers, directors, and executives-now work in a hybrid model, and 22% work entirely from home. In contrast, only 3% of frontline workers in roles such as retail, cleaning, and care have access to hybrid arrangements.

The ONS stated: "While the trend in working only from home has fallen since 2021, a hybrid-working model (part travelling to work, and part at home), has become the 'new normal' for around a quarter of workers."

Former Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg added his voice to the debate last month, saying: "Bosses ought to lead by example and get into the office. If they are not there, employers may discover that they are not missed, so it is in their interests to show up."