MILWAUKEE - Sales representatives, teachers and mechanics are among the nation’s most sought-after workers, according to survey findings released by Manpower Inc. Wednesday.

The employment services company also found that 41 percent of U.S. employers are having difficulty filling positions because of a lack of available talent.

The 10 hardest-to-fill jobs, as reported by U.S. employers, are:

1. Sales representative
2. Teacher
3. Mechanic
4. Technician
5. Management/executive
6. Truck driver
7. Driver/delivery
8. Accountant
9. Laborer
10. Machine operator

“With the variety of positions employers are struggling to fill, it seems like job seekers should have little trouble finding work,” said Jonas Prising, President of Manpower North America in a statement. “Yet on a daily basis we hear from clients who can’t find the right people for open positions and candidates who are struggling to get hired."

Prising stated the real problem is not shortages of jobs or candidates but skill levels, geographic dispersion and demographics.

Manpower surveyed more than 2,400 U.S. employers in February as a follow-up to its 2006 survey to determine which positions employers are having difficulty filling this year.

In the 2007 study, 41 percent of U.S. employers cited difficulty filling jobs. This is a slight dip from the 2006 results, when 44 percent of employers reported challenges filling open positions.

The Manpower statement said an important consideration is that this decline coincides with a gradual decrease in overall hiring sentiment, and does not necessarily point toward an easing of the talent shortage.

Sales representatives topped the list of hardest-to-fill jobs for the second straight year. Teachers and mechanics replaced engineers and nurses/healthcare workers in the second- and third-place positions this year.