Employers in South Africa are struggling to fill key positions, with 14% indicating that they have difficulty in finding the right talent, Manpower South Africa’s latest annual talent survey showed on Monday.

The 2011 survey showed that the hardest jobs to fill were drivers, machine operators and finance staff.

Last year, skills trade and engineers were listed as the most difficult positions to fill, but pressure on these sectors has since been relieved, with skills trade falling to fifth position and engineers not even listed in the top ten positions anymore.

Manpower South Africa MD Peter Winn said the fact that companies were citing a lack of skills or experience as a reason for talent shortages should be a wake-up call for organisations, the education sector, government and individuals.

“It is imperative that these stakeholders work together to address the supply-and-demand imbalance in the labour market in a systematic, agile and sustainable way,” he added.

However, South Africa has shown progress in bridging the talent gap. The 14% is an improvement from 16% in 2010 and 35% in 2009.

The survey further showed that South Africa was above the average global talent shortage figure of 34% of employers, with Japan having the hardest time at finding the right talent to fill jobs, with 80% of employers complaining, followed by India, Brazil and Australia.

In Poland, the talent shortage appeared to be unproblematic with only 4% of employers finding it difficult to find appropriate people to fill positions.

Winn said that while not all employers were feeling the strain associated with the global talent shortage, external forces would most likely result in them soon feeling the pressure.

“Businesses need to adopt a long-term approach to ensure they have the talent they need to achieve their business objectives. While talent cannot be ‘manufactured’ in the short term, a robust workforce strategy will ensure a company’s business strategy is supported by having the talented people they need to execute it,” he added.