Sales Reps Are The Hardest Jobs To Fill
By Andrea Coombes

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Sales representatives, teachers and mechanics are the top three jobs for which employers are struggling to find workers, according to a survey released Thursday by Manpower Inc. Overall, 41% of firms surveyed said they're struggling to find qualified workers for at least one position, according to the survey of 2,400 U.S. firms. The survey asked each company, "Are you having difficulty filling jobs due to lack of available talent?" If they said yes, the survey asked, "What is the one job you are having the most difficulty filling?" Sales representatives topped the list. That category includes retail sales and business-to-business sales, but not telemarketers, said Melanie Holmes, vice president of corporate affairs at Manpower, in a telephone interview.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics "projects that an additional 736,000 retail sales people and an additional 187,000 sales representatives are going to be required by 2014," she said. Teachers, the No. 2 job most in need of filling in the survey, includes elementary and post-secondary teachers, she said, noting the BLS projects an additional need for 524,000 post-secondary teachers and 265,000 elementary-school teachers by 2014. Third on the list, mechanics, including automotive service technicians, diesel service technicians, small engine mechanics, aircraft and avionics equipment mechanics and industrial machinery repair. Overall, among mechanics, "more people are retiring than replacement workers are coming in and doing apprenticeships and doing the training they need," she said.

Demand driven partly by lack of skills Changes in the labor pool are affecting firms' ability to find workers, Holmes said. "Demographics are not in employers' favor," she said. "Because of retiring baby boomers and the fact that birth rates are not keeping up with those that are retiring." Another reason: Job seekers lack sought-after skills. "There might be people, but they don't have the skills that are necessary," Holmes said. "As with many things these days, the world of work changes so quickly and so dramatically. If we're not very careful to keep our skills up-to-date as an individual, and as an employer if I'm not working to keep my workforce's skills up-to-date, people can become redundant," she said. "The message is not just for people looking for jobs, but for all of us: We need to keep our skills up-to-date [and] pay attention to the changing world of work," Holmes said. "We need to be very careful to take charge of our own careers and not expect somebody else to hand-feed us what we need. We need to look around and get the training or experience that we need to keep up." Nurses drop off Top 10 list Sales representatives topped the list of hardest-to-fill jobs for the second year in a row, while teachers and mechanics replaced engineers and nurses/health-care workers in the second- and third-place positions this year, according to the survey. But "even though some jobs fell off the top 10 list, demand for these positions still exists," said Jonas Prising, president of Manpower North America, in a press release.

Here's the Top 10 list:

1. Sales representative
2. Teacher
3. Mechanic
4. Technician
5. Management/executive
6. Truck driver
7. Driver/delivery
8. Accountant
9. Laborer
10. Machine operator