The biannual survey carried out among companies employing at least 10 staff or a total of 347,000 people shows the economy will require a total of 30,900 workers. Part of the required workforce will be replacements and part new jobs.

The biggest surge in workforce is expected in construction (7.5%) and other business activities, which includes staffing agencies, security, cleaning and lease of cars and equipment (6.2%).

Virtually all activities expect to hire additional workers in the next six months, exceptions being the grouping of other activities, which includes services like maintenance of computers, mining and quarrying, and electricity, gas and steam supply.

The Employment Service, which carried out the survey in October and November, pointed to "significant structural imbalances on the labour market".

On average, 43.3% of companies had trouble finding suitable staff, with the figure rising to 61% in big companies. The biggest shortage of workforce was reported by employers in hospitality (67.7%) and in construction (58.4%).

"Employers often have trouble finding workers for lower-paid jobs, physically demanding jobs and jobs with inconvenient working hours," the service said, also listing technical jobs which require specific skill sets in the same group.