Which Skills Do Recruiters Say Are Hardest to Find?

Talent Shortage

There are few topics more buzzed about, and more divisive, in the recruitment industry than the talent shortage. While most recruitment professionals agree it’s an important issue—respondents cited it as the top challenge for 2017 in the 2017 Australian Recruitment Trends Report—its exact impact differs depending on the unique circumstances of each recruitment agency.

To determine which industries, roles, and skills were most impacted, recruitment professionals were asked to list the skill shortages they were noticing on the job. Respondents cited hundreds of different skills, but Australian recruitment professionals cited these keywords most frequently.

skills shortage

Which Skills Are Hardest to Find?

Not all recruitment professionals felt the same about the talent shortage either. Some hadn’t noticed any impact, and others thought the full impact of the skills shortage was still being understated. Here are some of the most illuminating responses.

Hardest-to-find skills are probably those needed for entry-level salespeople. Clients say they want fresh graduates but they also want some degree of business acumen. It's difficult to find candidates who intentionally set out to forge a career in IT sales as fresh graduates.
Respondent 2017 Australian Recruitment Trends Report

 

IT! All of it!
Respondent 2017 Australian Recruitment Trends Report

 

Experienced Receptionists! This is not seen as a valid career position anymore. And even if someone wants this job they only want it for 3 months before seeking a promotion.
Respondent 2017 Australian Recruitment Trends Report

 

It is getting much harder to find reliable and trustworthy people. That is not really a skill, but this is an area that needs to improve.
Respondent 2017 Australian Recruitment Trends Report

 

Human Factors, Physicists, Industrial Design, Quality Assurance, Design Assurance—pretty much everything.
Respondent 2017 Australian Recruitment Trends Report

No change here, our sector has always been job rich, candidate poor.
Respondent 2017 Australian Recruitment Trends Report

Want to read more on the skills shortage? Check out creative methods for overcoming skill shortages or learn more about the talent shortage and the other challenges impacting the recruitment industry in the Trends Report.

talent shortage

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