Half of manufacturers
suffer from labor shortages

75 percent need technicians, as per Association of Industrialists and ILO survey

Nearly half of industrial companies are facing labor shortages, 62 percent of them have at least one job vacancy open, and 75 percent need technicians, according to a recent survey of 140 manufacturing enterprises carried out by the Association of Industrialists (ALI) and the International Labour Organization (ILO).

“There is unmet demand for electrical and mechanical technicians across all manufacturing subsectors, particularly for machinery maintenance. There is also high demand for computer numerical control (CNC) operators, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) technicians, lathe technicians and welders,” said ALI and ILO in Skills Anticipation Survey-The Manufacturing Sector, their joint report about the findings of the survey.

Surveyed businesses stressed the need for information technology (IT) skills and foreign language skills for all occupations (except low-skilled workers) and the increasing importance of marketing and e-commerce skills for administrative occupations. “The capacity to operate machinery, together with basic literacy and numeracy, are the only skills in high demand for low-skilled workers,” the report said. There is also high demand for salespeople and sales account managers across all industrial subsectors. About 63 percent of businesses emphasized the importance of soft skills for managers.

Training is the most common action taken by manufacturers to address skills gaps but providing comprehensive staff training is hindered by budget constraints and the lack of relevant training courses. Paying higher wages is the most common strategy to deal with skill shortages and retain qualified labor.



Regarding future demand, surveyed enterprises expect a significant increase in demand for IT and artificial intelligence (AI) skills, particularly in the management and programming of automated systems. “There is a high expected future need for programmable logic controller - human machine interface (PLC HMI) and CNC technicians and associated professionals,” the report said.