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A shortage of skilled workers is hurting the world’s major economies.Hemera Technologies/Getty Images

A growing shortage of skilled workers to fill jobs that are in demand is weighing on employers around the world, a survey by CareerBuilder has found.

A large number of employers in the 10 biggest economies around the world say that being unable to fill certain jobs has hurt revenues and productivity.

"The inability to fill high-skill jobs can have an adverse ripple effect, hindering the creation of lower-skilled positions, company performance and economic expansion," Matt Ferguson, chief executive officer of jobs website CareerBuilder, said in a release.

"The study underlines how critical it is for the government, private sector and educational institutions to work together to prepare and reskill workers for opportunities that can help move the needle on employment and economic growth."

The majority of employers in China, Brazil, Russia and India reported they had jobs they could not fill, with China at 74 per cent. China also topped the list on another crucial measure, with 81 per cent of employers saying they faced a negative impact owing to positions remaining vacant for too long.

Sixty-five per cent of employers in China said those vacancies resulted in loss of productivity. In the United States, it was 41 per cent. In Russia, 29 per cent said vacancies caused a loss of revenue. Vacancies resulted in an inability to expand their business, reported 25 per cent of employers in Japan.

Jobs in technical fields such as information technology and engineering were among the hardest to fill, as were research and development roles.

The survey, done in November and released Wednesday, included 6,000 hiring managers and HR professionals in the 10 countries with the largest gross domestic product: the United States, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United Kingdom.

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