Engineering employers struggle to find right candidate: Survey

As the demand for engineering talent continues to rise, employers are having a tough time to find candidates with the right talent and work experience they need, says a report.
According to a report released today by Experis, the global leader in professional resourcing and project-based solutions within ManpowerGroup, employers are citing lack of experience as top hiring concern.
The survey further noted that besides lack of experience, shortage of applicants, lack of hard/technical skills, salary demands being too high and lack of soft skills/workplace competencies were the other challenge that were being faced by employers in the engineering space.

"At the moment we see this imbalanced situation where 95 per cent of engineering employers plan to hire this year, but less than a quarter are confident they'll actually find the people they need," Rich Hutchings, Experis Vice President, Engineering said.
According to ManpowerGroup Talent Shortage Survey, which has been conducted annually since 2006, engineers have placed among the top 10 hardest jobs to fill in the US since 2008.
From the candidate side, over half of the engineers surveyed report feeling satisfied or extremely satisfied in their current position, but 41 per cent are actively seeking new positions in 2016 and 34 per cent intend to change employers before the year is over, the survey said.

Overall satisfaction with engineering as a career remains extremely high - less than 1 per cent of those interviewed reported dissatisfaction.
Meanwhile, salaries, bonuses and/or incentives remain top draw for engineering candidates, followed by access to better health benefits to the number two spot this year, followed by improved work-life balance, better work environment/culture and access to better professional training/career development.
A total of 700 engineers and 70 employers participated in the survey. The survey was designed to be representative of individuals working in an engineering discipline and employers who hire engineers within their organisations. The survey ran from January 19 through 27, 2016.