Hiring Challenges in Four Sectors: 2003 vs 2004

The table compares four sectors in terms of the difficulties in hiring workers in the years 2003 and 2004.

It is clear that the biggest challenge for all the departments was to find experienced workers, while it was generally much simpler to have technical and managerial staff. Commerce was the only sector that witnessed all three kinds of staff shortage drop from 2003 to 2004.

The Manufacturing, Building, and Services sectors shared a similar pattern in the percentage of staff shortage. There were generally 42% of jobs available for skilled workers, and the need increased by 3-6% in 2004. The same trend was also seen in the unskilled workers. By contrast, hiring technical and managerial staff was less difficult, with below 15% shortage in both years.

There was a noticeable fall in the percentage of job vacancies for Commercial workers. In 2003, 47% of positions were available for skilled candidates, while the figure for unskilled ones was below half that amount, at 22%. Small opportunities could be seen for technical support or executive positions, with merely 2% of job vacancies. By 2004, the proportions of shortage had dropped in all three worker types, by 6% and 3% for skilled and unskilled workers respectively, and there was no need to bring in managerial or technical staff anymore in 2004.