Table of Contents Purpose .............................................................................................................................................. 2 Methodology ................................................................................................................................... 2 Study I: Supply Vs Demand of Labor ............................................................................................ 3 Study II: Most Popular Search Terms ............................................................................................. 4 Study III: Skills Shortage Survey ....................................................................................................... 5 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 9 About ROZEE Research ................................................................................................................ 10 Appendix ........................................................................................................................................ 11
Purpose For Pakistan, a nation with an ever increasing population growth, economic indicators have never pointed towards a pleasing outlook. The worse perhaps after poverty is the unemployment rate which has always been a curse. A nation that boasts such a large labor force, courtesy the massive population size, the rate of unemployment seems a bit out of place. Population growth can be attributed as a cause of the large gaps in the labor market; however, it is not the only one. Why are there then huge gaps in the labor market, with the supply of labor exceeding the demand of labor? On ROZEE.PK an employer on average receives 400 applications per a single job vacancy. This vast disparity was theorized to be attributed to two reasons: one, the brand strength impact of the employer on the perception of job-seeker; and two, the shortage of necessary skills that employers required from an applicant. To explore the above theories, three separate studies were carried out by ROZEE.PK. Each study compliments one another as they all aim to quantify those areas of labor market where the job-seekers were in excess supply and where they were in shortage. Methodology Of the three studies carried out by ROZEE.PK regarding the labor market, two made use of the past data from ROZEE.PKs own database to draw a trend in the job market. After identifying areas that were facing labor shortage, a further analysis was conducted to establish reasons for the decline and rise in respective functional areas.
Study I: Supply Vs Demand of Labor Using historical data from ROZEE.PK, 63 unique functional areas were analyzed to help draw a trend over the last two years on areas where employers are actively seeking employment and where they are not. A proxy was set to measure this increase and decrease via the application per job ratio that was calculated as a ratio of applications received by an employer to a single job vacancy. A linear time series analysis divided 46% of the functional areas as being under the threat of being over supplied (excessively in some instances) by the labor force. (See Figure I) The increase in applications per job ratio was a result of two conflicting factors: one, decline in jobs posted within a category, which raises the ratio; two, the high level of attractiveness the job entails to the job seekers. Functional areas like Accounts and Finance, Financial Services, Project Management are ones that have shown a consistent increase in application to job ratio over the years. In case of Accounts and Finance, both the number of applications and job vacancies opened has shown a sharp rise, which causes the application to job ratio to rise. (See Figure I a). However, in case of Sales, the decline in jobs posted over the years raises the application to job ratio. (See Figure I b). On the other hand, over the last two years, as per the ROZEE.PK labor market survey, application per job ratio has declined in 54% of the functional areas. This includes Project Management, Database Administrator, Systems Analyst and Human Resource. This decline in applications per job ratio with time could again imply two theories: Increase in job positions (meaning higher labor demand) and decline in labor supply that meets the employers criteria. (See Figure II). In certain cases, like that of Project Management, the unattractiveness of the job is what causing the application to job ratio to decline. The demand from employers is on the rise over the past years; however it has not been met with same enthusiasm from the supply side. (See Figure II a) In addition to this, the employer brand strength itself is another significant reason why some areas are facing an increased supply of labor and others are not. Employers that appeared in the Top Ten rankings of the ROZEE.PK Top Employer Rankings 2012 received more than 800% more applications than employers with a weak brand. (See Figure III)
Study II: Most Popular Search Terms To support the above findings, a further analysis was computed on the comparison of the most popular keywords searched on ROZEE.PK by the job-seeker and the employer. The keyword analysis shows a disparity between the skills, job titles, and functional areas being searched by employers with those searched by a job-seekers. Functional areas of Sales, Information Technology, Human Resource and Marketing are high in demand by the employer. However, from the job-seekers side, the supply isnt equally reciprocated. In the labor market study, the functional area of Human Resource and Web Development were amongst those areas where the application to job ratio has been declining over the past two year as well. Job seekers actively searched for jobs by using employer names in search which shows they are more inclined to work for employers who in their perception appear to be highly branded. Employers from NGO/Social Services and Telecommunication sector were frequently searched including the Top Employers from the ROZEE.PK Top Employer Rankings 2012 survey. Most Searched Keywords by Job Seekers 1 Accountant 2 Teacher 3 Computer Operator 4 Graphic Designer 5 Software Engineer 6 Web Designer 7 Engineer 8 Electrical Engineer 9 Data Entry Operator 10 Civil Engineer Most Searched Keywords Employers 1 Web Developer 2 Web Designer 3 Sales Executive 4 Accountant 5 Sales Officer 6 Graphic Designer 7 Receptionist 8 Civil Engineer 9 iPhone Developer 10 Sales Manager Accountant tops the most searched keywords list by job seekers and appears on number fourth spot in the most searched keywords by employers, implying the fact how candidates in the functional area of Accounting and Finance are high in supply and also in demand by the employers. Jobs posted in the functional area of Software Development are high in demand by the employer; however, not many candidates have been searching for them. In addition to this, over the past two years, we also note the functional area of Software Development invites an increasing amount of jobs being posted by the employer and this is one area where there has been an increasing shortage of talent.
Study III: Skills Shortage Survey The third study invited HR managers of employers from various industries to identify and disclose those functional areas where they find hard to hire a candidate for and those where its relatively easy to find candidates. Employers were then asked to associate respective job titles and skills for functional areas that they chose. The results again address a huge discrepancy in the labor demand and supply in Pakistan. The top five areas where there is a severe shortage of talent are:
Information Technology & Automation Business Manager ERP and SAP Drupal Developer/Expert Expertise of open-source CMS i.e. Drupal Linux Administrator Linux, Shell Scripting, DNS, FreeBSD, IPTables SAP Consultant SAP Search Engine Optimizer SEO Software Developer .Net, C# Software Engineer C#.net, MS SQL Server 2008, Crystal Reports 9 Web developer Python
Web Development Web developer iOS, android, mobile SDK, PHP Flash Developer Flash, ActionScript Media Query Developer Media Query Senior ECommerce Developer SEO Understanding Team Lead PHP PHP, CRM, ERP WP Developer/Designer Wordpress Skills
Software Development received the highest amount of votes from HR managers who believed they found most difficulty in hiring candidates in this functional area. Information Technology & Automation and Web Development both received equal votes appearing as the second hard area. The top reason for not being able to find appropriate candidates in all these three areas, according to the HR managers is because of the shortage of qualified candidates in the market. A high salary expectation by candidates is another strong reason, which in a way compliments the fact that there are fewer candidates in the market who possess necessary skills for these jobs.
The top three functional areas that HR managers found the easiest to hire for are Accounts & Finance, Administration, Data Entry and Marketing. There seems to be a large supply of candidates possessing the required skills in the functional areas of Accounts & Finance and Administration. One may note that the skills required for all these top three functional areas are highly basic. There isnt any requirement for the candidate to possess hard skills which is why employers have been finding it most easy to hire in these areas.
Conclusion All three studies converge to a single conclusion: there is a wide disparity in the labor market which is somewhat the reason for high unemployment rates and also causes the employer to be unable to find the right candidate. Since there is high labor supply in certain areas, and low in others, it causes an issue during the hiring process for employers. Hiring candidates that possess hard skills is harder than hiring candidates that possess basic skills (Microsoft office, bookkeeping etc.). Academic excellence is not the only criteria that employers look for when hiring candidates, it is rather experience in hard skills for respective functional areas that counts more for the employers.
About ROZEE Research ROZEE Research is a market intelligence research division of Naseeb Online Services (Private) Limited, Pakistans leading Internet new media company. The companys management includes executives with over 60 years of combined experience running Internet businesses at companies such as AOL, eBay, Paypal, Excite, Cisco, Google and Intel. With access to Pakistans largest and fastest growing online professional community (ROZEE.PK), ROZEE Research is well positioned to provide customized business intelligence and marketing services. ROZEE Research is uniquely positioned to conduct custom surveys, analysis and marketing campaigns for this consumer segment. For inquiries, contact: ROZEE Research Division Naseeb Online Services (Pvt) Ltd. 46 B/II Main Gulberg Lahore, Pakistan +92.42.577.7130 research@rozee.pk
Warehousing Jul-11 2,497 3 832.33 Warehousing Aug-11 1,047 3 349.00 Warehousing Sep-11 2,756 6 459.33 Warehousing Nov-11 1,319 12 109.92 Warehousing Dec-11 886 6 147.67 Warehousing Jan-12 1,316 3 438.67 Warehousing Feb-12 5,472 14 390.86 Warehousing Apr-12 2,477 6 412.83 Functional Area Date Applications Total Positions Applicant Ratio Web Development May-10 4,968 212 23.43 Web Development Jun-10 12,491 503 24.83 Web Development Jul-10 11,007 376 29.27 Web Development Aug-10 11,855 394 30.09 Web Development Sep-10 11,704 401 29.19 Web Development Oct-10 12,271 441 27.83 Web Development Nov-10 8,628 340 25.38 Web Development Dec-10 11,046 364 30.35 Web Development Jan-11 10,800 389 27.76 Web Development Feb-11 10,490 415 25.28 Web Development Mar-11 14,488 520 27.86 Web Development Apr-11 11,349 470 24.15 Web Development May-11 12,325 508 24.26 Web Development Jun-11 15,472 549 28.18 Web Development Jul-11 13,498 550 24.54 Web Development Aug-11 9,641 342 28.19 Web Development Sep-11 12,460 446 27.94 Web Development Oct-11 12,529 496 25.26 Web Development Nov-11 9,606 377 25.48 Web Development Dec-11 12,574 399 31.51 Web Development Jan-12 12,015 409 29.38 Web Development Feb-12 14,922 439 33.99 Web Development Mar-12 14,669 547 26.82 Web Development Apr-12 13,485 525 25.69 Functional Area Date Applications Total Positions Applicant Ratio Writer May-10 2,120 86 24.65 Writer Jun-10 2,599 75 34.65 Writer Jul-10 3,954 117 33.79 Writer Aug-10 3,143 105 29.93 Writer Sep-10 2,900 53 54.72 Writer Oct-10 2,215 56 39.55 Understanding Labor Market Gaps in Pakistan Copyright 2012 Naseeb Online Services (Pvt) Ltd / ROZEE.PK Page 52