Last week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released the latest labour data. The jobless rate continued to fall to 3.5 per cent nationally, the lowest since August 1974, and 3.2 per cent in the ACT. Job vacancies nationally exceeded pre-Covid levels and hit 480,000 positions.
At last count in the ACT, there were there 12,300 job vacancies, and only 7,000 unemployed people. Nationally, the gap between the number of unemployed people and job vacancies has narrowed to just 14,000.
Low unemployment is good news in economic terms, but the latest data emphasises the severity of the workforce and skills crisis we are facing nationally and here in Canberra.
The Macquarie Dictionary defines crisis as “a time of great danger, difficulty, or confusion when problems must be solved, or important decisions must be made”. Employers of all shapes and sizes are dealing with a crisis in finding the skills and workers they need, and the impact is increasingly being felt by the whole community.
The labour and skills crisis is exacerbated by short-term staffing challenges that arise due to Covid infection, influenza, other illness, and people needing to quarantine or stay home.
This has become a community challenge as much as it is a “business problem”. Public sector agencies also can’t find, hire, and keep the people they need. Hospitals, healthcare, and care facilities are struggling to operate with staff shortages. Childcare providers are also struggling, and schools have already indicated that remote learning will again be a reality in Term 3. All of these have flow-on effects that impact a whole range of people, their employers and the economy.
It can be common for 20-to-30 per cent of staff to be absent on any given day. In some cases, people can work from home to help mitigate the impact, but this isn’t always possible.
For a small business with five or 10 employees, this has a direct and significant impact. Services can’t be provided, good aren’t available, and that impacts the customer. For many small businesses, when people call in sick, closure is the only available option.
The short-term challenges of absenteeism are clearly going to get worse before they get better, due to the impacts of the new BA 4 and BA 5 COVID variants, influenza, and general changes in our community norms when it comes to attending work or school when even slightly ill.
In the longer term, businesses are facing enormous pressures and need to recruit and retain local workers, but the reality is they’re running out of options. We really are entering uncharted waters with rampant inflation, rising interest rates, and unemployment falling faster than anticipated.
Prime Minister Albanese’s announcement of September’s Jobs and Skills Summit in Canberra was welcome news. Governments need to act; reduce barriers for people who want to work, ramp up skilled migration, and invest in training and support for innovation. Otherwise, instead of falling unemployment being good news, it will continue to highlight a labour and skills crisis that threatens our economic recovery.
– Graham Catt, Canberra Business Chamber CEO
