Skills underutilisation

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Skills underutilisation

Proportion of establishments with at least one employee with skills and qualifications more advanced than required for their current job role. Find out more about this indicator.

The proportion of establishments with at least one employee with skills and qualifications more advanced than required for their current job role was 33% in 2020 compared to 35% in 2017. This is a decrease of 2 percentage points from the previous survey. In 2015 the figure was 32%.

The proportion of all staff with skills and qualifications more advanced than required for their current job role was 8% in 2020 compared to 9% in 2017.

In 2020 West Lothian region had the highest incidence of skills under-utilisation (43%). The lowest incidence of skills under-utilisation was 30% in both Ayrshire and Tayside regions. This differed from 2017 where Dumfries and Galloway region had the highest incidence of skills under-utilisation (43%). The lowest incidence of skills under-utilisation in 2017 was 27% in the Forth Valley region.
In 2020 the density of skills under-utilisation was highest in Borders region (13%) and lowest in Edinburgh and Lothians, Fife, and Highlands & Islands regions (6%). This differed from 2017 where the highest density of skills under-utilisation was in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire and Dumfries and Galloway (12%) and lowest in West Lothian (4%).
Establishments with 25 to 29 and 50 to 99 employees were most likely to have skills under-utilisation (37% in 2020). In 2017 the highest sizeband was 100 to 249 employees (45%).
The incidence of skills under-utilisation was highest in the Hotels and Restaurants sector in 2017 (52%) and 2020 (48%). The lowest incidence of skills under-utilisation was Primary Sector and Utilities (23%) in 2020 and Business Services in 2017 (24%).
The density of skills under-utilisation was highest in Financial Services in 2020 (16%) and Information and Communications in 2017 (24%). The lowest density of skills under-utilisation was Public Admin in 2020 (3%) and Manufacturing in 2017 (4%). In general, the density of skills under-utilisation was greater among small establishments than large establishments.

This indicator can be broken down by establishment size, region and sector. These breakdowns can be viewed on the Equality Evidence Finder.