"Right now, I have 14 roles available immediately, and over the last month, we've had only one application."
Mark Wright runs the digital marketing company Climb Online, which he started after winning the BBC TV show The Apprentice in 2014.
Even though digital marketing is a growing field, the entrepreneur says there aren't enough people with the necessary skills.
"It's very, very worrying," he told Radio 5 Live's Wake Up to Money.
"Facebook advertising, Google advertising—some of this stuff has only been around for five to ten years, and there's a huge skills shortage," says Mr. Wright. He shares the concerns of industry experts who have warned that the UK is facing a digital skills shortage "disaster."
Earlier this month, economist and former cabinet secretary Gus O'Donnell told the BBC that the UK would "get left behind" if it didn't become "highly competitive globally" in these "new skills."
According to research from LinkedIn, the professional networking site, 150 million new technology jobs will be created in the next five years. A report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2020 found that 61% of the active population in the UK had digital skills, compared to 69.4% in the US.
The UK government has promised a skills "revolution" to try to close the skills gap by providing opportunities for adults to retrain and "upskill."
Mark Wright says he is also providing training, but it won't immediately solve the urgent need for staff at companies like his.