Small businesses believe in the future - Still a shortage of labour
In Skåne County, 429 small business owners (with 1-49 employees) responded to the Small Business Barometer. The response shows what the entrepreneurs think about the economic situation and what expectations they have for the next twelve months.
– The small business economy has slowed down, but Skåne is doing a little bit better than the national average, says Lotta Roth.
She is the representative for Företagarna (Entrepreneurs) who carry out the survey in collaboration with Sparbankernas Riksförbund and Swedbank.
Small business owners in northeast Skåne are doing well compared to Skåne's other three regions. Mikael Forsberg, Sparbankens Skåne's Bank Manager for Kristianstad and Östra Göinge, is pleased with this.
34 per cent of small businesses in Skåne have been forced to decline orders. They already have more to do than they can manage. Many have also responded that they have declined orders because of a shortage of labour.
The survey shows that 67 per cent believe in good prospects of expanding in the long term. The main obstacle is just a lack of labour.
– To cope with the shortage, more cooperation is needed between schools and industry. Students need to see the connection between studies and working life and businesses must say what they are looking for in terms of competencies, says Lotta Roth.
Roger Kronholm owns AB Hisskompaniet. The company has solved the problem of labour shortage by hiring new staff and paying for their training.
– There is only one lift school in Sweden, while I think there may be 2,000 jobs in the industry, he says.
Out of Roger Kronholm's 13 employees, five are in training.