More than one-third of Chinese companies are struggling to recruit skilled workers, posing a major challenge for their business-growth prospects, a report by international accounting firm Grant Thornton said on Wednesday.

Almost half of the companies from sectors such as technology and clean-tech reported difficulties in hiring skilled workers, the report said.

The Grant Thornton International Business Report revealed that 61 percent of companies in China cited a shortage of general employability skills as the main problem, while 55 percent said that a shortage of technical skills is the major concern.

Over half of both traditional industries — construction, food & beverage and healthcare — and emerging industries — technology, clean-tech and business services — believe that those two factors are hindering the recruitment process.

Xu Hua, CEO of Grant Thornton Jingdu Tianhua, said that job seekers have a hard time obtaining employment, while companies also have difficulties during the recruitment process.

On one hand, the labor market is saturated and the employment situation is difficult for graduates, but on the other, businesses find it difficult to recruit qualified employees, the report said.

"In the long term, businesses need to improve their training programs, which will be able to help with the development of their employees and deliver talent in a sustainable way, rather than pinning their hopes on recruiting skilled workers from the talent market," Xu added.

Businesses are also worried about the upcoming job-hopping season to a certain extent.

According to the research, besides increasing the workload for the remaining staff, 32 percent of businesses cite loss of orders as the main problem that staff retention issues have caused, while 32 percent think that increasing operating costs is the most important issue.

Compared with other industries, hospitality businesses are more concerned about the fall in customer service standards. And 25 percent of businesses in the technology sector consider that turnover will delay the development of new products and services, a higher percentage than any other industries.