Forty-one percent of employers in Canada report difficulty filling positions as employers struggle to find workers with the right balance of soft and hard skills

• Forty-one percent of employers struggle to fill open positions
• Lack of applicants, experience and hard skills are key reasons employers cannot find the skilled talent they need
• Skilled Trades are the hardest jobs to fill in Canada followed by Sales Representatives and Drivers

TORONTO, Aug. 20, 2018 /CNW/ - Forty-one percent of Canadian employers report difficulty filling jobs, according to the ManpowerGroup 2018 Talent Shortage Survey. Skilled Trades are the hardest jobs to fill in Canada followed by Sales Representatives and Drivers. At a time when organizations face a tightening labour market and the lowest unemployment in 40 years, most of the jobs where demand is growing are mid-skilled roles that require post-secondary training, yet not always a full university degree.

Nearly three in four of the companies surveyed (68%) are investing in learning platforms and development tools to build their talent pipeline, while 28% percent of employers are changing their existing work models, including offering flexible work arrangements to attract and retain talent, according to the nearly 2,000 employers surveyed. More than half of companies (56%) are looking at different talent pools for skills including boomerang retirees or returning parents and part-timers.

"We continue to see increasing demand for skilled workers across all sectors of the Canadian economy from trades and transport to sales," said Darlene Minatel, Country Manager ManpowerGroup Canada. "Today's job seekers don't always have the skills employers need. To solve our growing skills gap, we need to take a new approach. Employers need to buy skills in the short term, cultivate communities of talent by borrowing from external sources and help people with adjacent skills transition from one role to another. Above all, we need to build talent through upskilling and reskilling programs to develop a workforce with the skills companies and individuals need to succeed."

Global talent shortages are at the highest level in 12 years. ManpowerGroup calls for new solutions to the growing talent problem: Build, Buy, Borrow, Bridge:

• BUILD. Invest in learning and development to grow the talent pipeline and upskill the existing and potential workforce.
• BUY. In a tight labour market, go to the external market to find the best talent that cannot be built in-house in the timeframe required to fill immediate openings.
• BORROW. Cultivate communities of talent inside and outside the organization including part-time, freelance, contract and temporary workers to complement existing workforce.
• BRIDGE. Help people move on and move up to new roles inside or outside the organization.

For more details on the talent shortages around the world, including an interactive data explorer tool, visit https://manpowergroup.ca/campaigns/talent-shortage/.

About ManpowerGroup 

ManpowerGroup® (NYSE: MAN), the leading global workforce solutions company, helps organizations transform in a fast-changing world of work by sourcing, assessing, developing and managing the talent that enables them to win. We develop innovative solutions for hundreds of thousands of organizations every year, providing them with skilled talent while finding meaningful, sustainable employment for millions of people across a wide range of industries and skills. Our expert family of brands – Manpower®, Experis®, Right Management® and ManpowerGroup® Solutions – creates substantially more value for candidates and clients across 80 countries and territories and has done so for 70 years. In 2018, ManpowerGroup was named one of the World's Most Ethical Companies for the ninth year and one of Fortune's Most Admired Companies for the sixteenth year, confirming our position as the most trusted and admired brand in the industry. See how ManpowerGroup is powering the future of work: www.manpowergroup.com.

SOURCE ManpowerGroup

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