Canberra has 5,000 more job vacancies than unemployed people. Why do Canberra businesses face workforce shortages, and how can workers be attracted to the ACT?
To find out, the ACT Government and the University of Canberra are conducting an online survey to better understand the workforce challenges facing Canberra ahead of the national skills summit at Parliament House on 1-2 September.
ACT skills minister Chris Steel said that despite the Territory’s strong economy – including very low unemployment and high population growth – it also faced acute workforce and skills shortages in the private sector and across the public services.
“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,” said Graham Catt, CEO of the Canberra Business Chamber.
“Small businesses are facing enormous pressures and do need to recruit and retain local workers, but the reality is they’re running out of options.
“Low unemployment is generally good news as an economic indicator, but the latest labour data emphasised the severity of the workforce and skills crisis we are facing nationally and here in Canberra.”
The July data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that the jobless rate fall to 3.5 per cent nationally, the lowest since August 1974, and 3.2 per cent in the ACT, Mr Catt wrote last month. Job vacancies nationally exceeded pre-Covid levels and hit 480,000 positions.
In the ACT, there were 12,300 job vacancies, and only 7,000 unemployed people. Nationally, the gap between the number of unemployed people and job vacancies narrowed to just 14,000.
Mr Steel said the ACT government would invest $7 billion in infrastructure over the next five years, and $126.3 million in skills in 2022 to solve these problems.
“But government investment and training subsidies is clearly only one part of the story,” Mr Steel said.
The UC research project will look at other factors, including what other employers are offering workers in terms of pay, security, and future job prospects to advance their careers.
All Canberra businesses can take part in the survey, which is aimed at people responsible for workforce, recruitment, or skills in their organisation.
The survey is voluntary and anonymous, and data go directly to UC researchers.
More than 160 businesses across a range of industry sectors have already completed the survey, UC lead researcher Professor Rachael Johns said.
“Along with a review of other available data, interviews with peak business and industry groups, and focus groups with workers from interstate, we hope this will provide some good evidence for future actions by government and industry.”
Mr Steel said he wanted to hear from business and industry to help inform combined strategies for attracting more skilled workers to the ACT.
Mr Catt said the Chamber has distributed the survey to its database of ACT businesses, and he encouraged every business to complete it.
“We need good policy in this area and good investment, and that will depend on good data. The business community will be very keen to learn more about the outcomes of this research, and how industry and government can work together to develop and implement solutions.”
The survey is available here or on the ACT Business Hub website, act.gov.au/business.
The survey only takes a few minutes to complete, and will be open until 11.59pm on Friday 26 August.
To view the ACT Government’s skills and workforce strategy, Skilled to Succeed, visit act.gov.au/skills.
