A new report has found that the consulting industry is one of the most affected sectors by the skills gap.
The Skills Shortages Report* reveals that the consulting industry is facing the biggest challenge of finding highly-skilled people to fill currently vacant roles, with a risk of just 6% of roles being filled.
To find out which sectors are facing the worst shortages, research looked at 20 industries across the UK and identified five different job positions for each. LinkedIn revealed how many jobs were available for those positions and were able to compare to the number of people currently searching on Google for those roles.
Currently, the consulting industry has 40,163 open positions for roles such as management consultant, operations consultant and IT consultant. But with only 2,560 people searching for the particular vacancies and as a result, they’re at risk of less than one in ten roles being filled.
Talent pools may also be limited in certain areas across the UK, alongside specific industries, which could mean hiring managers are limited geographically, depending on if they require people to work in the office, on a hybrid model, or remotely.
The ten industries facing the biggest shortage of employees are:
|
Rank |
Industry |
Number of job roles available on LinkedIn |
Number of people searching for jobs |
% of likelihood to be filled |
|
1 |
Insurance |
46,578 |
570 |
1.22% |
|
2 |
Ecommerce |
35,800 |
620 |
1.73% |
|
3 |
Transport |
54,996 |
2,410 |
4.38% |
|
4 |
Retail |
56,067 |
2630 |
4.69% |
|
5 |
Tech |
118,211 |
6,800 |
5.75% |
|
6 |
Consultancy |
40,163 |
2,560 |
6.37% |
|
7 |
Construction |
34,478 |
2,870 |
8.32% |
|
8 |
Wholesale |
54,920 |
5,400 |
9.83% |
|
9 |
Finance |
62,294 |
6,610 |
10.61% |
|
10 |
Engineering |
64,580 |
7,180 |
11.12% |
Commenting on the research, Chris Fisher, LBMH Operations Director, EMEA at ECI Software Solutions, said:
“Workplaces have significantly evolved and digitalised over recent years and with the introduction of technology into everyday processes, the skills required to undertake certain roles have drastically changed. This situation is creating both opportunities and challenges for business leaders looking to fill vacant positions, with many also having to evaluate how they are marketing themselves as an organisation.
“That being said, there are still plenty of opportunities to train and up-skill existing staff or potentially offer apprenticeships to entice new recruits. It’s clear that some industries may be falling behind in terms of appealing to the right candidates and making a career in the field look appealing. Combatting this starts at a grassroots level – encouraging students to explore the opportunities in these sectors, but also highlighting how most skills are transferable.”
*ECI Software Solutions
