Over the next 10 years, the Project Management Institute (PMI) forecasts a US$207.9 billion hit to the GDP of 11 major economies due to the shortage of project management talent.
According to the Project Management - Job Growth and Talent Gap 2017–2027 report, organisations in China, India, the United States, Japan, Brazil, Germany, Britain, Canada, Australia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will have problems hiring the numbers of skilled project managers required to implement strategic initiatives, drive change and deliver innovation.
Commissioned by the PMI to carry out the report, Anderson Economic Group used available data to estimate the size of the talent shortage and its economic cost.
Obviously, those industries with a high and growing demand for project management skills are predicted to be particularly adversely affected. Between 2017 and 2027, in the 11 countries studied, manufacturing and construction is expected to see 9.7 million such job openings; information services and publishing, 5.5 million; finance and insurance, 4.6 million; management and professional services, 1.7 million; utilities, 279,000; and oil and gas, 49,000.
The report cites three main causes for the coming imbalance between supply and demand: the dramatic increase in the number of jobs requiring project-oriented skills; the attrition rate among project managers, including losses due to the number of professionals reaching retirement; and a surge in demand for project talent, especially in rapidly developing economies such as China and India.
Bob Chen, the PMI’s China CEO, has first-hand knowledge of the Hong Kong and mainland markets. “With the relatively higher GDP growth rate and national policies, such as the Belt and Road and the Made in China 2025 initiatives, the demand for qualified project managers is rapidly increasing,” he says.
However, Chen sees a major bottleneck in meeting this demand. “Because the education system cannot keep up with these trends, organisations are having a difficult time finding the talent they need.”
He believes this problem is exacerbated by the peaks and troughs of the economic cycle. “When the economy is slack, companies will cut back on their training budget for project managers; but a booming economy will generate a greater need for qualified project managers, since then more projects can be approved and executed.”
Chen admits that the general public often doesn’t perceive project management as a profession on a par with, say, accountancy, engineering or medicine, but says this is partly because the skill set isn’t exclusive to any particular industry or discipline.
“Once you are in the field, however, you will realise how important project management is for business. It’s a fact that every strategic initiative of an organisation is implemented through projects and programmes.”
Nowadays, this significance is increasingly recognised by CXOs and senior executives, Chen says, as they can see their jobs will be made so much easier if there is sufficient investment in project management capability.
All this, as the PMI report points out, could mean an extraordinarily positive jobs outlook for skilled project professionals. By 2027, employers are forecast to need 87.7 million project managers.
This translates into nearly 22 million new openings by 2027. “Within China alone, more than 11.1 million new project management jobs will be created over the next decade in project-oriented industries,” Chen says. “Mainland China and Hong Kong will undoubtedly be hot spots for the growth of the project management profession.”
These jobs should also offer great scope for career progression. “We are seeing more and more organisations creating dedicated career paths for project management professionals, and starting to pair such paths with the conventional career ladder.”
Given the various roles project management plays within the different functional arms of organisations, project managers can potentially follow parallel paths up to director or CXO level, Chen says.
Particularly if they’re working in an enterprise-level project management office (PMO), or as a portfolio or programme manager, they can gain a deeper understanding of organisational strategy and its alignment with daily operations, projects and programmes, making them a natural fit for leadership within an organisation.
The PMI report shows that in the US, in industries driven by structured projects, the wages of project management-oriented workers were far higher on average than the wages of non-project-oriented professionals. “On a global basis, [professional] certification also bolsters salary levels as shown in our Earning Power: Project Management Salary Survey,” Chen notes.
To earn this kind of pay and have these sorts of career prospects, he adds, a project manager should not only have field knowledge and technical ability – such as planning, scheduling and risk management – but also, more importantly, possess leadership qualities and have a good insight into business and strategy.
The need for high-quality project management skills exists not only in multinationals and other large organisations, but also in start-ups and new businesses driven by technology.
Catering to the rapidly evolving possibilities generated by software and hardware development, and keeping pace with consumers’ changing demands, means that anyone working in a project management role in this type of start-up requires a high degree of agility.
Chen also thinks there is a risk that young entrepreneurs underestimate the need for project management skills.
“This is especially true when they enjoy big profit margins, and they are in the early stages of their career.”
As for what university programmes are best suited for those considering a career in the sector, Chen says that as project management skills are needed in every industry, the subject is usually a component of courses in a range of disciplines.
However, he adds, because of the increasing value placed on the role, there are now more project management degree programmes offered. Those linked to traditional sectors, such as engineering and construction and ICT, are to the forefront in this regard. It is here where the greatest opportunities will be concentrated, for the time being at least.
This article appeared in the Classified Post print edition as Projecting ahead.
