The survey received over 700 responses from the UK's leading recruiters with the aim of establishing the main challenges faced when trying to attract candidates and fill job vacancies across all sectors. The data reveals that Engineering roles top the list as the most challenging, and across all sectors 65% of recruiters admit to difficulties when it comes to finding the right candidates for job role. Key findings revealed:
- 49.9% of recruiters believe engineering roles are the most difficult to fill
- 37.7% are experiencing serious skills shortages across all sectors
- Over a third of recruiters (34.2%) believe that candidates have unrealistic expectations
- 32.1% feel hindered by the slow speed of the recruitment process
CV-Library’s latest statistics also shed more light on the engineering industry’s current recruitment situation. While there has been a 26.2% job growth in August 2015 compared to August 2014, there was only a 13.2% increase in the number of job applications in the same time period, resulting in an overall deficit of 10.4% in terms of the number of applications per role.
Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library comments: “In a job market where candidates now have more selection, it's unsurprising to see that recruiters are struggling to fill the growing number of roles available. That, combined with the growing concern over skills shortages continue to cause a problem for the Engineering industry.
“However, we hope that the increasingly stable financial market and the rise of other work benefits, such as bonus schemes, mean businesses can afford to do more to attract the best talent to their organisations. Furthermore, a previous survey revealed that 94.2% engineering professionals list training opportunities as ‘very important’ when looking for a new job – highlighting the provision of training and mentoring, and providing opportunities for career progression are other key ways to improve application rates.”