The table below shows the percentage of employers in various sectors having difficulty in finding staff in 2003 to 2004.
Sample Response
The table provides data on the percentage of difficulty employers faced when recruiting three different categories of workers across four economic sectors for the years 2003 and 2004.
Overall, skilled workers were consistently the most difficult category for employers to recruitmost challenging category to recruit in both years. A second prominent trend shows that while the difficulty in sourcing technical and managerial staff decreased in all four sectorsuniversally decreased, the figures generally rose for both skilled and unskilled workersit generally rose for both skilled and unskilled labour.
In 2003, the difficulty in finding skilled workers was the greatest challengemost significant challenge, with figures ranging from 41% to 47%; the Commerce sector reported the highest difficulty at 47%. Recruiting unskilled workers was less problematic, with rates between 20% and 26%, peaking in Manufacturing (26%). The lowest figures were recorded for recruitingThe least difficulty was found in sourcing technical and managerial staff, where figures were notably low (2-14%), with the Building sector experiencing the highest rate at just 14%.
By 2004, the challenge of finding skilled workers increased in three of the four sectorshad intensified in three of the four sectors, with only Commerce seeing a decline (from 47% to 41%). A similar trend occurred for unskilled workers, which also saw increased difficulty in three sectors, most notably a sharp rise in the Services sector from 20% to 29%. In stark contrast, the difficulty in recruiting technical and managerial workers fell across all four sectors, even dropping to 0% in Commerce.
Why this response received Band 8.0
The response accurately identifies the table's dominant patterns and supports them with well-chosen sector comparisons and figures. Organisation is especially strong, and the language is varied, controlled, and easy to follow; the main limitation is occasional slightly awkward phrasing around percentages and recruitment difficulty. The best next step is to refine those collocations while maintaining the same selective, comparative treatment of the data.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response gives a clear, accurate overview and skilfully selects figures that support the principal patterns across worker types and sectors.
For even greater precision, explicitly identify the years when introducing the two value columns and keep every comparison tightly tied to the table labels.
Coherence and Cohesion
The overview and year-based detail paragraphs form a logical sequence, and cohesive devices guide the comparisons smoothly.
Maintain this structure while trimming occasional repeated wording about difficulty to make the progression even more concise.
Lexical Resource
A wide and precise vocabulary supports nuanced comparisons, with only minor awkwardness in phrases such as 'percentage of difficulty'.
Use natural formulations such as 'the percentage of employers reporting difficulty' when describing the measure.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of sentence forms is handled accurately, including complex comparison and contrast structures.
Continue checking dense sentences for the clearest possible noun phrases and modifier placement.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The table below shows the percentage of employers in various sectors having difficulty in finding staff in 2003 to 2004.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.