DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) – Talent shortages in key sectors are likely to remain a feature of Western economies left with persistently tight labour markets in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, global staffing company ManpowerGroup said.
Seventy-five percent of companies surveyed across eight countries and regions reported talent shortages, it found, saying this had profound implications for the retention and upskilling of workers.
“(Companies) cannot stop hiring people despite the risk of potential recession because to find that talent would be very difficult,” Riccardo Barberis, ManpowerGroup president for Northern Europe told Reuters on the margins of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Barberis urged companies to think more about how they help their existing workforce and new employees to get greater skills rather than worry about other trends such as the so-called “Great Resignation” of people leaving the labour market.
“Lots of workers are already doing training for themselves. What are we offering those candidates?” he said, suggesting that being able to providing an offer could be existential for companies in some sectors.
Among the sectors were he saw most acute labour shortages were digital, green energy and healthcare.
Added to that was the finding of the ManpowerGroup survey that 30% of the workforce will be a “Generation Z” worker with a new set of expectations about life-work balance and the possibility of hybrid working.
“If you are a Java developer you set the rules when you go to your interview,” he said.
The research took place last November among 8,000 people looking for work in the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and Norway. Its also surveyed 13,700 hiring decision-makers in these markets.
(Reporting by Mark John in Davos; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
