This situation has persisted in recent years and is driven by the steady development of investments, as well as the region’s growing attractiveness, labour-market experts comment. New shortage occupations have also emerged in the region, including beauticians, mechanics, teachers and uniformed-services personnel.
The greatest shortages in the construction sector concern all counties in Lower Silesia. A similar situation exists in the catering sector, where most counties reported a shortage of cooks, head chefs, butchers and meat processors. To a lesser extent than a year ago, employers are seeking bartenders, bakers and confectioners. Many foreign nationals have found employment in these occupations.
In Bolesławiec County, four surplus occupations still existed two years ago. There are none now, but the number of shortage occupations has fallen from 64 to 59. The greatest shortages occur in the following occupations: pavers, bus drivers, heavy-truck and tractor-trailer drivers, warehouse workers, welders, and electronics, automation and robotics specialists.
“The forecast generated for 2019 for the entire Lower Silesian Voivodeship points to a further deepening of labour-market shortages, as in recent years. The number of shortage occupations increased over the year from 42 to 47, while for the second consecutive year there are no surplus occupations. This is a clear signal that we are dealing with an employee’s market,” explains Bartosz Kotecki, deputy director of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship Labour Office.
In the 2019 forecast, the shortage occupations identified the previous year no longer included, among others, automotive body repairers and painters, civil engineers, metal-structure assemblers, and special-school teachers.
However, new occupations appeared that were classified as shortage occupations across the voivodeship. These are beauticians, machinery and equipment mechanics, teachers of general education subjects, quality-control staff, accounting and bookkeeping staff, manual workers in manufacturing and simple jobs, and uniformed-services personnel.
The authors of the “Occupational Barometer” compared the sectors with the greatest staff shortages with a list of the 10 occupations in which the largest number of unemployed people are registered, including salespeople, cooks, bricklayers, locksmiths and construction workers. Most of them are sought after on the labour market. Why, then, can’t they find work?
“According to the survey participants, the reasons include outdated qualifications, a lack of practical experience, a lack of professional licences and, in many cases, a lack of foreign-language skills. However, the reason cited most often is different: an unwillingness to take up employment. Hence the intensive efforts of public employment services to activate these groups,” adds Deputy Director Kotecki.
The “Occupational Barometer” survey has been conducted in the region by the Lower Silesian Voivodeship Labour Office for four years. Every year, DWUP involves more than 100 local labour-market specialists and practitioners who have daily contact with both employers and jobseekers. In some counties, as in previous years, representatives of local employment agencies, employers’ associations and continuing-education institutions participated in the panels. This makes the barometer a true reflection of labour-market needs.
Which occupations are in shortage in our county?
- Insurance agents
- Concrete workers and steel fixers
- Library scientists, librarians and scientific information specialists
- Pavers
- Industrial ceramics workers
- Carpenters and construction joiners
- Confectioners
- Roofers and construction sheet-metal workers
- Automotive diagnostic technicians
- Electricians, electromechanics technicians and electrical fitters
- Physiotherapists and masseurs
- Hairdressers
- Civil engineers
- Waiters and bartenders
- Bus drivers
- Heavy-truck and tractor-trailer drivers
- Sales managers
- Cooks
- Postal workers and couriers
- Speech therapists and audiologists
- Warehouse workers
- Motor-vehicle mechanics
- Electronics assemblers
- Building-installation assemblers
- Metal-structure assemblers
- Bricklayers and plasterers
- Foreign-language teachers and language instructors
- Early-years teachers
- Vocational-practical training teachers
- Teachers of general education subjects
- Teachers of vocational subjects
- Preschool teachers
- Special-school and integrated-class teachers
- Operators of machinery for producing rubber and plastic goods
- Machine-tool operators
- Educators
- Bakers
- Nurses and midwives
- Kitchen assistants
- Quality-control staff
- Accounting and bookkeeping staff
- Construction finishing workers
- Industrial-designers
- Sales representatives
- Psychologists and psychotherapists
- Paramedics
- Receptionists and registrars
- Construction workers
- Wood-processing workers and joiners
- Leather-processing workers
- Glass and precious-metal artisans
- Independent accountants
- Welders
- PR, advertising, marketing and sales specialists
- Human-resources and recruitment specialists
- Electronics, automation and robotics specialists
- Freight forwarders and logistics specialists
- Salespeople and cashiers
- Locksmiths.
Which occupations are in balance?
- Website administrators
- Acousticians and sound engineers
- Analysts, testers and ICT systems operators
- Cultural animators and event organisers
- Architects and urban planners
- Landscape architects
- Archivists and museum professionals
- Education assistants
- Biologists, biotechnologists and biochemists
- Automotive body repairers and painters
- Dentists
- Journalists and editors
- Economists
- Pharmacists
- Philologists and translators
- Philosophers, historians, political scientists and cultural scholars
- Florists
- Photographers
- Surveyors and cartographers
- Facility managers, porters, caretakers and janitors
- Miners and mining-machine and equipment operators
- Computer graphic designers
- Building-inspection officers
- Driving instructors
- Recreation and sports instructors
- Chemical engineers and chemists
- Electrical and power engineers
- Environmental engineers
- Mechanical engineers
- Stonecutters
- Passenger-car drivers
- Construction managers
- Logistics managers
- Production managers
- Service managers
- Business management and operations managers
- Managers in social and cultural institutions
- Beauticians
- Tailors and clothing-production workers
- Painters
- Doctors
- Butchers and fish processors
- Machinery and equipment mechanics
- Meteorologists, geologists and geographers
- Machinery and equipment assemblers
- Window installers and glaziers
- Shoemakers
- Gardeners and fruit growers
- Medical-equipment operators
- Earthmoving-equipment operators and mechanics
- Paper-production and processing machine operators
- Operators of machinery for producing cement and stone products
- Operators of machinery for producing chemical products
- Agricultural and horticultural machinery operators
- Textile-machine operators
- Lifting and transport equipment operators
- Childcare workers
- Carers for older or disabled people
- Opticians and prosthesis makers
- Artists, interior decorators and monument conservators
- Domestic workers
- Other education specialists
- Administrative and office workers
- Travel-agency workers and tourism-service organisers Road-construction workers
- Environmental-protection and occupational-health-and-safety staff
- Dental-technology workers Manual workers in manufacturing and simple jobs Car-wash, laundry and ironing workers
- Rail-traffic service workers
- Security guards
- Postal workers
- Printing workers
- Metal-processing workers
- Food-processing workers
- Uniformed-services personnel
- Social workers
- Online-sales workers
- Telephone and electronic customer-service workers, survey interviewers and telephone interviewers
- Funeral-service workers
- Animal-care workers
- Lawyers
- Database designers and administrators, programmers
- Forestry workers
- Farmers and breeders
- Secretaries and assistants
- Sociologists and social and economic research specialists
- Public-administration specialists
- Financial specialists
- Production-organisation specialists
- Real-estate-market specialists
- Agriculture and forestry specialists
- Food technology and nutrition specialists
- Telecommunications specialists
- Cleaners and room attendants
- Head chefs
- Upholsterers
- Construction technicians
- IT technicians
- Mechanical technicians
- Veterinarians
- Debt collectors
- Child and youth care workers in educational and care institutions
- Procurement and delivery workers.