More than one in 10 employers struggle to fill staff vacancies despite the recession, a survey has revealed.

More than one in 10 employers struggle to fill staff vacancies despite the recession, a survey has revealed.

Although unemployment has soared to more than 2.2 million, businesses say they face difficulties in finding people with the skills they need.

A total of 11% of employers polled in the Manpower Annual Talent Shortage Survey said they had problems recruiting the right staff, almost as many as the 12% the year before.

But Manpower said the figures were an improvement on 2007 and 2006 when 34% and 42% of employers complained of such difficulties.

Mark Cahill, managing director of Manpower UK, said: "Despite the highest levels of unemployment the UK has experienced for more than a decade, employers still struggle to recruit people with the skills they require.

"In this climate employers can afford to be very specific when looking to hire new staff and therefore companies are demanding more from employees.

"For example, a PA may now need to have accounting or language skills to be considered for a role when traditionally these skills would not have been essential to secure employment."

For the first time in the four years the survey has run, engineering positions were named the hardest to fill, followed by skilled trade, sales representative and management roles.

However, nurses dropped out of the top 10 trickiest roles to recruit, despite the NHS's need for specialists.

Manpower surveyed more than 2000 UK employers in late January for the survey.


The jobs employers find hardest to fill are (in order of difficulty):

1. Engineers
2. Skilled trades
3. Sales representatives
4. Management/executives
5. Accounting and finance staff
6. Chefs/cooks
7. Restaurant and hotel staff
8. Machinists/machine operators
9. Technicians (primarily production/operations, engineering or maintenance)
10. Receptionists