Why are Australian businesses in big trouble?

Highlights

• Why is the health and aged care industry desperate to add 25,000 more workers by 2026?

• Does hiring 90,000 migrants be the best solution to address the tradie shortage in Australia?

• Why do employers need to act now?

As Australia strives for growth and development, it is now grappling with a shortage spanning critical industries. At the forefront of this issue is the urgent need to address the shortfall, a task that requires efforts and strategic interventions among Australian employers.

Additional 25,000 health and aged care workers by the year 2026

Australia is currently facing a rapidly aging population, with more than 22% of Australians over the age of 65 by 2026 (University of Sydney). The existing shortage of workers and the country’s aging population will only exacerbate the current challenges faced by the healthcare industry. 

Without intervention among employers and the Australian government, the quality of care provided to Australians is at risk with the capacity to meet the required needs severely constrained.

90,000 migrants needed to address tradie shortage

According to the leading representative of the Australian construction industry, BuildSkills Australia, the government would need to locate an additional 90,000 construction workers within the next three months to achieve its goal of constructing 1.2 million new homes by 2029.

The current Housing Minister, Julie Collins, reiterated that the government is finding ways to achieve the ambitious agenda. The Housing Minister also assured that 3.5 billion dollars has already been allocated to states and territories to deliver the infrastructure target.

• BuildSkills Australia’s proposed solution for tradie shortage:

  Before we dive into the solutions, let us first introduce BuildSkills Australia. BuildSkills Australia is an industry-owned organization that is established by the federal government. It aimed to work with construction industries and find solutions to workforce challenges. Here are the solutions proposed by the organization:

  • To quickly increase the construction sector’s capacity, Australia needs to look overseas for tradie workers and reform the migration system.

  • Use the free-trade agreement effectively

  • Allow simple work permits in building and construction

  • Provide a more direct route to permanent residency even without a job offer before emigrating

  • Reduce application fees

  • Recognize overseas trade qualifications

  • Lower the English language test requirements

  • Subsidize the cost of filling skills gaps between the migrant’s home country's qualification and Australian requirements

Why do employers need to act now?
With the current shortage of workers in Australia, employers should take action as soon as possible. To grow or reskill the domestic workforce will take a long time. However, with the increasing skills shortage, time is certainly not in your favor.

In addition, the disadvantage of delaying to act is you could put your business in a difficult position. Australian employers are competing to attract workers not only within Australia but also from other countries like Canada and the UK.

To help Australian employers struggling to find compatible people for their businesses, ThinkVisa crafted a job-matching program that connects employers with skilled professionals from offshore locations. With our job-matching program:

• You can save time and resources by avoiding the complex process of sponsorship. Sponsoring offshore applicants involves lengthy paperwork. With our Standard Business Sponsorship Application, you can effortlessly navigate the sponsorship process, as we will do the compliance work for you.

• You can have access to qualified candidates. We will do a thorough assessment of your requirements and preferences.

• You can have comprehensive Visa Application Support. The number one goal we have is to take out the burden of the visa application process so employers can focus on growing their businesses. We have been in the immigration business for more than 20 years, thus, you can trust us to handle your immigration needs with professionalism and attention to detail.

• You don’t need an upfront payment to sign up with our job-matching program. If you don’t have SBS approval, we will help you process your application directly with our standard service fee. However, the actual job matching service which includes candidate profiling, job posting, assessment, and screening will only be charged when you finalize the candidate you want to sponsor for the job position.