According to a new survey conducted by the national confederation of industry, Dansk Industri (DI), 60 percent of Danish companies needing new staff find it challenging to find them locally.

The survey, which included responses from 465 companies in Denmark, showed that the issue was particularly problematic with companies employing in excess of 100 people.

“It is often the case that our members are forced to refrain from bidding or are unable to deliver an order because they do not have enough employees,” said the head of DI, Steen Nielsen.

“The economy is growing, and we’ve had some very good years. This is something we want to continue, and that requires that companies are able to get the labour they need. Otherwise we risk seeing Denmark’s growth and business climate suffer,” said Nielsen.

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Pay Limit Scheme
Nielsen also underlined that there needed to be better conditions to attract foreign labour to Denmark – including a lowering of the Pay Limit Scheme – which currently stipulates that non-EU foreign employees must have a minimum salary of 417,000 kroner to be approved a work permit.

In particular, the high minimum salary impacts recently graduated foreign talent and DI wants it lowered to 325,000.

One of the companies currently struggling to fill positions in Denmark is software firm Milestone Systems, which contends that the situation is so dire that it often must abandon plans to hire locally, but instead fill positions abroad at its international subsidiaries.

“We’re trying to find employees in Denmark for all conceivable platforms. But in Denmark we have the fundamental problem of excess demand and an under-supply of labour,” said Milestone Systems chief executive Lars Thinggaard.