HireRight, a leading provider of employment screening solutions, announced that the often discussed “mismatch” in the employment sector between available jobs and people qualified to fill them is supported by the HireRight 2011 Employment Screening Benchmarking Report. Forty-nine percent of the report’s nearly 1,800 surveyed professionals, from organizations of all sizes, reported that finding and retaining quality talent was one of their top business challenges, virtually matching “cost-cutting” as their top response. Within the field of talent management, attracting and retaining experienced workers was reported as the number one issue.

The report’s statistics affirm the findings in a recent survey by ManpowerGroup that said 52 percent of U.S. companies are experiencing difficulty finding employees qualified enough to fill mission-critical jobs. For example, the manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy, according to the Financial Times, has reduced the number of those employed, but the number of open jobs has risen to 230,000 today from 98,000 in 2009.

“With unemployment numbers topping nine percent, most people assume that every company has their pick of hundreds of qualified workers for every job,” said Rob Pickell, HireRight senior vice president of customer solutions. “In reality, employers appear to be experiencing a different phenomenon today. This year’s benchmarking survey results and other third party reports suggest that many companies are having difficulty in filling critical positions.”

The need for talent by employers is also reflected in other talent management challenges reported by the HireRight 2011 Employment Screening Benchmarking Report respondents: 32 percent reported being challenged by the transfer of knowledge among employees; 30 percent cited attracting and retaining entry-level employees as a top challenge.

“It appears that America has a work/skill gap that is contributing to the employment problem,” said Pickell. “While 90 percent of organizations expect no decline in their workforce and 51 percent anticipate an increase in hiring, the obvious challenge is finding the right candidate for the role.”