Abstract
This paper studies the perceived difficulty of recruiting scarce competencies to rural regions. Furthermore, the role of policy in facilitating and enhancing recruitment to and better skills matching in rural regions is discussed. Based on a survey targeted to the business sections of Swedish municipalities, the results show that recruitment is perceived to be difficult in both rural and nonrural regions and that the difficulty of recruiting for the right skills results in a lack of skills matching and constitutes an obstacle to growth. Rural regions located close to urban areas can to some extent mitigate these recruitment problems, and their locations pose less of a barrier in recruitment processes compared to those of remotely located rural regions.Which policies can help remedy recruitment problems faced in rural regions? In both rural and nonrural regions, incentives for writing off student debt and relocation support for accompanying persons and tandem recruitment are perceived to be the most promising policies. Rural regions are more receptive to the implementation of such policies. Finally, the need for flexibility and policies that can be adapted to the regional demand for labour are stressed.
Highlights
Successful recruitment is vital to businesses’ ability to adapt and develop and for their potential growth and long-term survival
How severe are recruitment problems in rural regions? The general findings suggest that recruitment is challenging in all regions and in both the public and business sectors since the Likert scale measurement shows quite high values
The successful recruitment of scarce competencies is important for sustainable regional development in rural regions
Summary
Successful recruitment is vital to businesses’ ability to adapt and develop and for their potential growth and long-term survival. Many employers encounter problems with recruiting employees, which constitutes an obstacle to the growth or even the survival of their ventures. In addition to being an obstacle to firm growth, recruitment problems may lead to skill mismatches. According to the OECD (2016), approximately 40% of Swedish employees are mismatched in terms of qualifications, while approximately 10% are mismatched in terms of skills. Skill mismatch is shown to have negative effects on, for example, earnings, job satisfaction and human capital accumulation (see, e.g., Mavromaras et al 2013). Recruitment problems and skill mismatches are identified as some of the main challenges facing the Swedish economy and have the potential to negatively influence economic growth (see, e.g., World Bank 2014)
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