Four in 10 employers are struggling to find staff with the right skills

Nearly four in 10 UK employers are struggling to fill positions due to a lack of staff with the right skills, according to research by recruitment firm Manpower.

The research of more than 1,800 UK employers revealed that the four hardest-to-fill positions are: skilled manual trades, administrative assistants and personal assistants, engineers, and sales reps.

Additionally, management executives are now much harder to find compared with last year, having moved up the hardest-to-find list from 10th to fifth position.

Mark Cahill, managing director of Manpower UK, said: “Finding the right staff remains a significant issue for many organisations today irrespective of size or location.

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“Employers need to maintain a flexible approach to their recruitment needs – such as thinking about using temporary staff to meet short-term needs, looking to older workers and mothers returning to work, or looking to staff from outside the UK.”