India Inc Struggling to Fill Key Vacancies

New Delhi: Nearly half of employers in India are “struggling” to fill critical positions within their organisations, and sectors like IT, marketing, public relations and communications are the most difficult positions to fill, says a survey. According to ManpowerGroup India’s annual talent shortage survey, 48 per cent of employers in India are struggling to fill jobs, down 19 per cent from last year, yet high when compared with the global average of 34 per cent. Globally, however, India’s position is still better than other developed nations like the US, Australia and Japan. For the second consecutive year, Japan is ranked at the top of all participating countries and territories, with 81 per cent of employers reporting talent shortages, followed by Brazil (71 per cent), Bulgaria (51 per cent) in the second and third position, respectively. Australia is in the fourth position with 50 per cent of employers reporting talent shortages, followed by those in India and New Zealand tied in sixth place at 48 per cent. In India, the jobs employers have most difficulty filling are those of IT staff, Marketing/Public Relations/ Communications staff and engineers, as compared to last year when R&D, sales manager and IT staff were the most difficult positions to fill. “Owing to high growth in the IT sector and increase in the social media presence of organisations, there has been a surge in the demand for IT staff and marketing/communications staff,” ManpowerGroup India Managing Director, Mr Sanjay Pandit said. Compared with the previous year, the most striking fall in the proportion of employers reporting hiring challenges is in India, where the figure is 19 percentage points lower, while the most notable increase of 4 percentage points is reported by employers in New Zealand, the report said. “Employers may not think leaving important positions unfilled is a problem now, but they will in years to come when it will be too late,” Mr Pandit added.