KEY POINTS:
The lack of skilled accountants and finance staff is not as severe as it was last year, according to an international survey of business managers.
The skills shortage is easing in those professions, with the proportion of employers having difficulty recruiting skilled finance and accounting staff almost halving in the past year.
In this year's Global Employment Monitor, released by recruitment company Robert Half, 28 per cent of New Zealand employers reported having difficulty recruiting skilled finance and accounting staff.
But that compared with 46 per cent who last year reported they couldn't find skilled staff.
The biggest easing in the market occurred at senior levels, with just four per cent of employers saying it was hard to find executive and managerial staff, compared with 10 per cent last year.
There was also a big easing in the market for operational support (bookkeeping, credit control and payroll) with 8 per cent of employers having difficulty finding staff this year, compared with 11 per cent last year.
But the Robert Half survey, which was answered by more than 4000 human resource and finance managers across 20 countries, showed there were still major international shortages of skilled finance and accounting staff.
In Hong Kong, 89 per cent of employers reported difficulty finding skilled staff, followed by 82 per cent of employers in Brazil and 76 per cent in Singapore. More than half of employers in Australia, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Japan, Luxemburg, Spain and the United States also said it was hard to find skilled staff.
Megan Alexander, senior manager at Robert Half in Auckland, said the survey backed up evidence on the ground, with the biggest slowdown in the market occurring at senior levels.
"With the economy slowing the way it has in the past six months, more people are sitting tight in their jobs to ride out the bumpy patch," Alexander said.
"We are also seeing a steady trickle of expats returning from the United Kingdom, where the credit crunch has caused a significant contraction in the financial services sector. Almost daily, we get enquiries from expats wanting to return home, which increases the pool of available candidates."
However, Alexander said there was still significant movement in the more junior roles, as younger people were leaving to do their OE and were being lured by higher salaries not only in the traditional economies such as Australia, but increasingly in economies such as Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore.
- NZHERALD STAFF
