According to a recent ManpowerGroup survey, a record-breaking 77% of employers worldwide are having difficulty filling empty employment positions, suggesting a 17-year high in talent shortages.
For its annual study, ManpowerGroup surveyed 39,000 employers in 41 countries. The poll surveyed that companies are seeing a 2% year-over-year rise in trouble filling available positions, which is more than double the problem reported in 2010, when just 31% of employers were having difficulty at the time.
According to the research, the IT industry has the biggest unmet need for talent, with 78% of IT firms experiencing hiring issues. This indicates that newly laid-off IT professionals will be reabsorbed into the market in the near future. Despite these hurdles, the survey found that many IT firms want to employ.
The IT industry was the most optimistic among the studied industries in terms of hiring intentions, with 34% of firms reporting a strong desire to employ. This was followed by communications (30%), financial services (29%), and real estate (29%).
To address the skills gap, the report states that 71% of organizations surveyed are upskilling and reskilling their current workforce, while 51% plan on filling new permanent roles. Meanwhile, 43% are investing in more technology to augment processes, and 37% will bring in more contract or temporary roles. Only 4% of the surveyed organizations reported having no plans to address the skills gap.
As talent scarcity grows, nearly three in five organizations (57%) plan to offer more flexibility for when or where work is done. Additionally, the survey revealed that soft skills such as reliability, creativity, critical thinking, reasoning, problem solving, resilience, and adaptability are in high demand. The report highlights that workers with in-demand tech and soft skills will find themselves in high demand as the need for reskilling continues to grow to meet the requirements of tomorrow’s jobs.
The sources for this piece include an article in ComputerWorld.
