Top 10 Toughest Jobs to Fill? The Top 3 Are In Search Engine Marketing

Here’s the best example of misleading statistics we’ve seen, outside of the ads skewering the mythical Cable Corp: “DirecTV – Cable Corp Inc. – Statistics” directed by Christopher Guest) “Whip up some numbers that make it look like we have, like, I don’t know, a thousand HD channels.”

Today the WSJ blogged about the hardest jobs to fill based on an annual employment survey conducted by temp firm Manpower Inc. We all agree with the famous German ad shown here, “Life is too short to be in the wrong job.”

Not surprisingly, the very temp-to-perm jobs Manpower specializes in ended up high on the Top 10 list of the 42,500 global companies surveyed.

Based on the response to SEW Experts columnists Ron Jones (SEM.edu), Fionn Downhill, and William Flaiz, we know better.

In fact, rather than linking to all their columns about learning SEM or how to attract and hire talent, I asked John Skroly, vice president of business development for Onward Search what jobs Fortune 500 companies and top search marketing firms can’t easily fill.

Here’s what Skroly had to say:

Based on feedback from clients this is what we are finding:

1) Qualified Web Analytics professionals – Omniture, Web Trends etc
2) Organic SEO experts with e-commerce experience from top tier IR’s (Internet retailers)
3) Paid Search with vertical experience

So what gives?

Manpower asked companies, “What is the one job you are having most difficulty filling due to a lack of available talent?” The categories were so broad they practically broke down into the age-old categories of white collar and blue collar:

1. Skilled Manual Trades (carpenters, welders and plumbers)
2. Sales Representatives
3. Technicians (production/operations, engineering and maintenance)
4. Engineers
5. Management/Executives
6. Laborers
7. Secretaries, PAs, Administrative Assistants & Office Support Staff
8. Drivers
9. Accounting & Finance Staff
10. IT Staff (primarily programmers/developers)

Do those jobs sound like the future of the American economy?

Has that been your experience? Discuss your career here.