![New approach needed to fix labour market New approach needed to fix labour market](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/123151812/f9bb4a7d-38e1-46c7-aca9-f35ffad07d88.jpg/r0_255_4885_3002_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
It's no secret that we are living in challenging times.
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COVID has truly changed our way of life, how we see the world and how we engage with each other. But that's not all it's changed - it's also changed our labour force.
We've heard a lot about remote work, we've become Zoom-weary from online meetings, tried to recreate the team environment through web-based platforms, and I'm sure you're sick of the phrase "career pivot" in conversations relating to work opportunities in our Brave New World.
I don't know about you, but I expected (perhaps naively) that when things opened up, things would go back to some sort of normal. I thought people who had lost their jobs as the world locked down, would be there dancing on eager tip toes behind their front doors chomping at the bit to be released back into the labour market when the lockdowns were lifted. And yet, hospitality industry businesses in particular are struggling to find staff.
So where have all the workers gone?
It seems the transient nature of our population and visitors has been significantly affected by border closures, COVID outbreaks and subsequent lockdowns. We aren't moving around as much, we aren't looking for adventures, we aren't accepting young backpackers from overseas onto our shores, and our migration numbers are down by more than 64 per cent. This affects our transient workforce because casual workers just passing through are no longer coming. However, hospitality isn't the only industry to be hit with the harsh reality of COVID hiring.
Just like our cafes and entertainment venues ready to open the doors, our agriculture industry is set for a record $73b year according to The Guardian, but labour shortages threaten this projected success.
The President of Australian Custom Harvesters estimated 30 per cent of the skilled staff contracted to operate harvesting machinery come from overseas, and the international border restrictions and quarantine rules are causing significant issues with allowing these specialist contractors in. The Guardian also reported the Agriculture Minister, David Littleproud said only 10,000 of the 27,000 people from 10 Pacific nations who had been found to work across regional Australia could be brought into the country.
Furthermore, the drop in migration numbers for skilled workers has caused labour shortages to loom across many industries ranging from ICT to construction and engineering.
On top of this, our tertiary student base has been significantly depleted due to international border restrictions thanks to COVID, which has also reduced available labour looking for casual hours, with Reuters reporting there are approximately 300,000 fewer international students living in Australia now than at the beginning of 2020.
Never before has the extent to which we rely on international workers become so apparent.
Never before has the extent to which we rely on international workers become so apparent.
So why is this the case? If we have more than 2 million Australians underemployed and over 800,000 unemployed, why can't we manage to fill the 250,000 jobs we have advertised with the workers we have available and actively looking for more work?
Anecdotal evidence from a smattering of newspaper articles indicates that perhaps we need to be rethinking how we frame our job advertisements to make them more attractive to jobhunters. We often get so caught up in the idea that a jobseeker 'should be grateful to get any job,' that we often forget that 'any job' is often not possible for everyone.
Single parents, students, and people with multiple responsibilities need shifts that work for them, at a payrate that will pay their bills. Many of them have come out of the COVID haze with larger debts than they had when Covid first put the brakes on the world and this means minimum wage often won't cover their bare essentials (assuming it ever did), and telling jobseekers to pick fruit is simply not an option for everyone, for health, family, and logistical reasons.
The jobs that are available need to be jobs that people are seeking. This isn't a luxury need, the spoilt carrying-on of a 'millennial' or evidence of some sort of entitlement. This is a matter of survival. We have relied upon a transient and migrant workforce for decades in Australia and because of this, our industries are suffering and the work we have available isn't always suitable for jobhunters.
I don't have a quick fix , but I think we need to start thinking creatively about how we shape the opportunities we have for workers, and recognise their changing needs as they step into the breach.
- Zoë Wundenberg, careers consultant and un/employment advocate at impressability.com.au.