The table compares the percentages of difficulties in finding employees of employers in different areas in 2003 and 2004.
Overall, while difficulty in finding skilled and unskilled workers increased across sectors except for commerce, the figures for seeking technical and managerial employees fell in all sectors. Finding trained workers was consistently the most common problem, followed by finding untrained ones, whereas shortages of technical and managerial staff was the least reported.
Regarding skilled workers, 45%, 42%, and 41% of manufacturing, building and services companies, respectively, struggled to employ them in 2003. The proportions of these three areas then increased modestly, with the biggest rise to 51% for manufacturing, whereas those of commerce fell slightly from 47% to 41%. Similarly, the percentages of seeking unskilled employees saw a growth of 2% for manufacturing and building and a noticeable 9% for commerce, while a minimal decrease of 3% was recorded in the remaining sector.
As for technical and managerial staff, shortages of these employees decreased across the four industries, with decreases ranging between 2%-4%. In both years, building was challenged the most in finding technical and managerial staff, recording 14% in 2003 and 10% in 2004. Meanwhile, manufacturing rose to 51% and surpassed commerce to have the highest percentage in seeking skilled workers, while services reached 29% and overtook manufacturing in finding unskilled workers.