Productivity/Revenue Losses Result of Skills Gap in World’s Top Economies

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city Illustration According to a global CareerBuilder survey from November 2012, which included over 6,000 hiring managers and HR professionals from the top 10 global economies, the expanding gap between the number of skilled jobs and workers to fill those positions continues to drag down employers (and economies) across the world. Many employers from the world’s biggest economies reported that extended job vacancies have led to less revenue and a decline in productivity leading to stagnant growth.

Chinese employers were most likely to report unfillable positions creating negative effects on company performance while Russia continues the highest percentage of employers reporting declining revenues due to job vacancies. The U.S. is one of the top economies reporting productivity loss, while many employers in Japan feel that the lack of skilled workers is impeding business growth.

“The inability to fill high skill jobs can have an adverse ripple effect, hindering the creation of lower-skilled positions, company performance and economic expansion,” said Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder. “Major world economies are feeling the effects of this in technology, healthcare, production and other key areas. The study underlines how critical it is for the government, private sector and educational institutions to work together to prepare and reskill workers for opportunities that can help move the needle on employment and economic growth.”

The hardest positions to fill in the labor market of top 10 economies include:

• United States: Information Technology, Sales, and Engineering

• United Kingdom: Engineering, Information Technology, and Customer Service

• France: Production, Sales, and Customer Service

• Germany: Information Technology, Engineering, and Sales

• Italy: Production, Creative/Design, and Sales

• Russia: Engineering, Production, and Information Technology

• India: Research & Development, Information Technology, and Marketing

• China: Research & Development, Creative/Design, and Engineering

• Japan: Engineering, Information, and Research & Development

• Brazil: Information Technology, Production, and Customer Service

 

By Joshua Bjerke