75% HK employers suffering talent shortages

As talent shortages rise globally, Hong Kong climbs to the third most difficult place in the world to find staff.

Almost three-quarters of Hong Kong employers reported difficulties in filling job vacancies due to talent shortages, according to ManpowerGroup’s annual Talent Shortage Survey. This marks a 9% increase year-on-year. Compared to the global figure of 38%, Hong Kong ranks third among 42 surveyed countries and territories.

Hong Kong employers indicated that talent shortages are having a medium to high impact on their businesses. To combat this, more employers are implementing talent attraction and retention strategies with a view to addressing the problem. The number of Hong Kong employers who are proactively tackling talent shortages has increased by almost 10% compared to the findings of last year.

Employers in Hong Kong are having the most difficulty filling jobs in the sales representative, engineering and IT personnel categories. Sales representatives in particular continue to be difficult to recruit and retain. This category has topped the local list annually since 2007 and has returned to the top of the list in Asia Pacific overall this year.

Over half of Hong Kong employers from a wide spectrum of industries say that talent shortages are having a high impact on their ability to meet client needs. When asked why they are struggling to fill certain jobs, employers cite lack of available applicants, 54%; higher-than-offered pay, 17%; and lack of experience, 15%.

Lancy Chui, Vice President, ManpowerGroup—Greater China Region commented, “Sales representatives have topped the list since 2007 so, clearly, little headway is being made. A strong sales force is critical to driving revenue growth and solutions to this endemic difficulty which needs to be addressed.

In addition, our survey results revealed that demand for engineers has increased as well—ranked number two in the top ten hardest jobs to fill. The booming growth of infrastructure and railway construction projects is seeing demand outpace supply for specialist engineers, labourers and skilled trades.”

Hong Kong’s most in demand jobs

“On the other hand, the statutory minimum wage has been raised and, as such, part-time positions have returned to the top-10,” said Chui. “The changing economic environment is making it increasingly hard for employers to fill those positions as they struggle between salary expense and talent availability.”

She added, “IT candidates with the right skills are still in demand, and remain in third place in 2015 on the list of most difficult to fill positions. Business agility also requires technology to enhance efficiency and productivity. As such, the evolution of business requirements has relied significantly on IT outsourcing where employers require IT personnel to possess strong communications skills to work with internal departments and IT vendors.”

Hong Kong is not the only territory struggling to retain and attract talent in these fields. In Greater China—31% and 45% of employers in China and Taiwan respectively—expressed difficulties filling jobs due to the lack of available applicants.

Hardest-to-fill jobs in Greater China (2015)

Chui explained, “Candidates with specific product knowledge are in demand, especially in the fields of finance and investment. Considering the growth of financial products across Greater China, the demand of industry-related certificates and experience, such as risk and compliance is increasing. However, there are a lack of candidates with strong communications skills.”

Reflective of issues indicated locally here in Hong Kong, employers across APAC struggle to find sales representatives as well, followed by engineers and technicians. The sales representative category returns to the top of the list of most difficult-to-fill job roles for APAC employers this year, compared to previously being in second place in 2014.

Among those surveyed, 83% of employers in Japan, 65% in Hong Kong and 58% in India report having the greatest difficulty finding talent. Employers in China report the least difficulty, presumably due to continued steady growth of the Chinese economy.

Globally, Japan and Peru seem to be struggling the most. More than 80% of hiring managers report severe talent shortages in Japan, while two in three employers report difficulty filling jobs in Peru—Hong Kong follows closely behind. Talent shortages are also an issue for more than half of employers in Brazil and Romania.

As a whole, across all 42 countries and territories, employers report that skilled trade vacancies are extremely difficult to fill, as was the case in each of the previous three years. The top four hardest-to-fill positions in 2015 throughout the world are skilled trade, sales representatives, engineers and technicians.

Additionally, global employers report considerably more difficulty recruiting drivers in 2015, with the category climbing in ranking from 10th to 5th , while the production/machine operator category appears in the top 10 for the first time—up from 12th position last year. On the contrary, sales manager positions dropped out of the top 10 this year.