Recent maritime news reports again portend of an even bigger projected shortage of officers in the next five years, as presented in the new Seafarer Workforce Report, launched last July 28, by the Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO) and the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS). This new report, issued every five years is an update to the Manpower Report released in 2015.
In the 2015 report's estimate, there were about 1.89 million seafarers in the world merchant fleet, operating over 74,000 vessels. That number has risen by 10.8 percent since then, and now shows an anticipated shortfall of 26,240 officers that will be felt in the coming years. The current study projects that the continued growth of the maritime industry will result in the largest shortage of officers in more than a decade: in short, nearly 90,000 more officers will be needed by 2026 to run the world's merchant fleet.
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