Digital sector to
increase employees

Ministry of Labor and InfoPro study shows

lack of skills and experience as challenges

More than half (55 percent) of digital sector companies plan to increase staffing, according to the Ministry of Labor’s (MoL) “Digital Sector Labor Market Assessment” study, which was released recently.

The MoL also conducted a similar study, “Fashion and Jewelry sector Labor Market Assessment,” which showed that the majority of both jewelry (80 percent) and fashion (60 percent) businesses surveyed will maintain their number of staff.

The two studies were conducted in collaboration with InfoPro, which interviewed 149 companies in the digital sector, 141 companies in the fashion and jewelry sector, and focus groups of employees and potential employees in both sectors. The studies covered companies in Beirut and Mount Lebanon.

Software development, IT technical support, and web development are the most in-demand positions in the digital sector, while goldsmith and tailor are in highest demand in the jewelry and fashion sectors, according to the studies.

Men vastly outnumber women in the digital sector as well as fashion and jewelry, according to the studies. Most employees in digital and jewelry businesses are skilled. Fashion businesses tend to have fewer skilled employees.

More than half of businesses surveyed in the two sectors said that educational institutions are not adequately preparing their graduates for work.
Javascript development, Cisco networking, and programming in new languages are the main technical skills that need to be improved in the digital sector. Skills gaps in fashion and jewelry sectors include casting gold, fashion techniques, beading, knitting, tailoring, final retouching, technical speed and machine operations. Soft skills gaps are common in the two sectors, according to the studies.

The Fashion and jewelry sector study said that those businesses mainly rely (89 percent) on word of mouth as a recruitment method. Around 28 percent of digital companies rely on this method, while 26.8 percent use social media for recruitment, according to the digital sector study.

Lack of required skills and lack of required experience are the main challenges facing companies of the two sectors under study when recruiting new staff.
According to both studies, the majority of the companies offer in-house on the job training to their employees.

Reported by Gisele Khalaf