Skilled workers always have been a hot commodity, but in many fields, they’re also becoming a rarity.
Each year, human resources consulting group ManpowerGroup releases its Talent Shortage Survey, which is geared toward determining the fields that are struggling the most to find the skilled people they need to carry out their business functions. The survey then pinpoints the 10 jobs proving hardest to fill with qualified candidates for that year.
As Forbes reports, ManpowerGroup confers with nearly 42,000 hiring managers in 42 countries. It asks them questions such as “How much difficulty are you having filling jobs due to lack of available talent?” and “What level of impact does this talent shortage have on your ability to meet client needs?”
“The working population is declining, forcing employers to select from shrinking talent pools,” says ManpowerGroup CEO Jonas Prising in a statement from the company. “Technology is evolving faster than ever, changing the skills needed for jobs and shortening the life cycle of those skills. We are also seeing a bifurcation of the workforce—those with in-demand skills versus those with high-supply skills.”
According to the survey, 42% of employers surveyed this year reported that talent shortages resulted in a reduced ability to serve clients, while an identical percentage reported reduced competition and productivity.
Leading the talent shortage list for the sixth year in a row is skilled trade workers. It is a collection of occupations that have been on the list every year since 2008, and topped it each year since 2010.
“The first step to addressing talent shortages is to make sure talent strategy is aligned with business strategy,” says Prising. “The same old recruitment and workforce practices won’t yield different results, so it is time to harness new people practices, and explore untapped talent pools. Employers need to foster a learning culture within their organizations and encourage employees to own their careers.”
Following skilled trade workers on the list of hardest-to-fill jobs are sales representatives, engineers, technicians, drivers, management/executives, accounting and finance staff, secretaries, IT staff and production/machine operators.
