According to a research of the International Business Report (IBR), leaded by Grant Thornton, qualified personnel shortage has been increased 5% during the first four-month period of 2014, comparing to the last three-month period of 2013..

During a research that involved 3500 companies, 32% employers within the region stated they notice a qualified human resources shortage.

Globally, the IBR reveals that those countries leading the list for having greater difficulties when hiring qualified personnel are Asian, such as Japan (55%), Malaysia (52%) and Singapore (50%).

Industries most affected by the lack of qualified personnel are: transport (52%) and construction, electricity, gas and water supply (37% each).  On the other hand, the sector with the greatest employment expectations is technology (53%).

The IBR reveals that 44% of companies worldwide are optimistic as regards economic perspectives (the highest percentage recorded since 2007, and  with a 17 percentage points increase in relation to the previous three-month period). Such confidence is evident throughout the world: in North America optimisim is at it highest level since 2004 (64%); the same happens with the European Union and Pacific Asia (both with 37% each in comparison to 2007 and 2008 respectevely). In Latin America, optimism was recovered after four years of decrease, reaching 43%.

The proportion of companies that chose global economic uncertainty as a limitation in the growing capacity has been reduced from 42% to 38% during the past three months.