Over to you WESTERN ROADS FEDERATION by Cam Dumesny, CEO
WESTERN AUSTRALIAN SKILLS SHORTAGE
W
estern Australia’s recovery from the Pandemic has been better than most, but it is creating widespread issues with finding skilled and semi-skilled labour. Not just in Road Transport, but nearly every sector of the West Australian economy is now reporting a difficulty in recruiting staff. With Jobkeeper ending March 28th, as of 15th March it was reported that the national unemployment rate had decreased to 5.6%. The key statistics reveal that employment is on an upwards rise. Seasonally adjusted estimates for March 2021: • Unemployment rate decreased to 5.6%. • Participation rate increased to 66.3%. • Employment increased to 13,077,600. • Employment to population ratio increased to 62.6%. • Underemployment rate decreased to 7.9%.
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WATM • May 2021
• Monthly hours worked increased by 38 million hours. This is being evidenced recently with interstate Tradespeople being offered salaries of $108,000 per year to move to WA for work which is related to the Homebuilder grant and other incentives to encourage growth in the building and construction sector. Western Australian building giant Buckeridge Group of Companies is offering bricklayers across Australia the six-figure sum to relocate to Perth and keep the state's building boom on track. Superannuation and annual leave are offered on top of the hefty salary, which is about $40,000 higher than the average income of a bricklayer, along with a relocation incentive of $2,500. Roads and Infrastructure in Western Australia is another big driver of employment. There is record stimulus spending on roads and infrastructure by the State and Federal Governments. In
particular, Main Roads has a record five year spending program on new roads and maintenance. Even local councils have stimulus dollars to spend on roads. We all understand our WA mining super cycle, so no need for explanation. The trend for online shopping is also creating more demand for local drivers and transport staff. It is a double edged sword. All of these things create demand for road transport to support them; however, a dwindling labour market being offered financial dream jobs makes it harder for our industry to compete. Why the Labour Pool is down? Normally, an upswing like this would see WA recruiting FIFO workers from the East or New Zealand. However, the WA State Government policy of discouraging FIFO in place of local employment and the frequent border closures has meant a decrease in the available FIFO workforce. Even though there have been thousands of returning Australian expats they seem not to suitable or willing to work in the skilled and semi-skilled jobs. Finally, add in no international migration and we are left with just relying on the existing WA workforce. But with
