WA Employers are struggling to find qualified professional staff, paying the same people more money to do the same job, according to a survey by employment agency Manpower Inc.
WA Employers are struggling to find qualified professional staff, paying the same people more money to do the same job, according to a survey by employment agency Manpower Inc.
The full text of a Manpower announcement is pasted below
According to a Manpower Professional Survey released today 38 percent of employers are paying higher wages for the same positions compared to the previous year due to professional talent shortages. The survey also revealed that 32 percent of employers in Australia are having difficulty filling permanent professional1 positions due to a lack of available talent, which is threatening their growth plans.
Manpower, through its Manpower Professional division, surveyed nearly 32,000 employers across 26 countries and territories in July and August, including 3,312 employers in Australia. The survey was conducted to determine the availability of suitable permanent professional candidates in the marketplace and the impact of available talent on wage inflation.
Scott McLachlan, Managing Director, Manpower Australia and New Zealand said employers are now verifying what we have been saying for some time, that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find qualified professional talent in the Public Administration/Education, Finance, Insurance and Real Estate industries and that this would put upward pressure on wages.
"With demand and competition for talent increasing, in many cases, employers in these industries are now forced to offer higher compensation to attract and retain staff," said Scott.
The survey shows that employers are most struggling to find qualified professional staff in Western Australia and the Northern Territory, where 44 percent of employers indicated that they would have hired more permanent professional staff if they could find them. In Perth, over half of employers surveyed reported that they are paying more for the same job compared to one year ago. Tasmanian employers reported the least difficulty finding professional staff, with only 18 percent reporting they would have made additional hires if suitable talent were available.
Positions are hardest to fill in Public Administration/Education where 41 percent of employers are having difficulty finding qualified professional candidates. Wage inflation is greatest in Public Administration/Education and Finance, Insurance and Real Estate industries where 45 percent of employers reported paying higher wages compared to last year.
"Talent shortages for professional level positions are growing and this trend is beginning to impact the bottom line," said Scott.
"As these trends grow stronger in the coming years, the companies with the strongest employer brands will be the big winners because they will be able to attract and retain top talent more easily than those who have been slower to adapt," added Scott.
The Australian results compare negatively to the worldwide average, as globally, 29 percent of employers would have hired more permanent professional staff in the last six months if they could have found qualified professional talent, compared to 32 percent in Australia, and 25 percent indicated that talent shortages are causing them to pay higher wages compared to 38 percent in Australia.
"These results build on the findings of Manpower's Talent Shortage Survey undertaken earlier this year, which revealed that many of the hardest to fill positions globally were professional roles, such as accountants, IT programmers and developers, management and executives, and experienced sales representatives," said Scott.
