Physician assistants, food service managers, tellers and sales engineers ranked as the hardest occupation to fill by sector in the US, according to the American Staffing Association’s fourth-quarter skills gap index released today. The quarterly index tracks hard-to-fill occupations in the US.

These occupations replaced general internists, bus and truck mechanics, sales floor stock clerks and police patrol, which ranked as the hardest-to-fill occupations in the third quarter.

The two hardest-to-fill jobs in each staffing industry sector are:

Engineering, IT, and scientific:

• Computer and information research scientists
• Information security analysts

Healthcare:

• Physician assistants
• Psychiatrists

Industrial:

• Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers
• Food service managers

Office/clerical and administrative:

• Interviewers, except eligibility and loan
• Tellers

Professional/managerial:

• Tax preparers
• Sales engineers

“The skills gap is growing, as are talent shortages across a number of occupations,” said ASA President and CEO Richard Wahlquist. “The ASA Skills Gap Index quantifies those shortages, providing a data source that staffing, recruiting, and workforce solutions companies can use when developing flexible and permanent talent acquisition strategies with their clients.”

The ASA Skills Gap Index uses a hiring indicator developed CareerBuilder. In September, CareerBuilder implemented new guidelines for its supply and demand data methodology and salary data inputs, significantly changing hiring indicator scores and the number of hard-to-fill occupations.