31% of businesses are hit with staff shortages according to a survey. The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducted a survey of about 2,000 businesses in June and found that 620 were having difficulty finding suitable staff. This trend is definitely also something that we at Australian Loans Group have observed and heard about from our many business owner clients.
The most common reasons given by businesses for the difficulty finding suitable staff were:
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Lack of job applicants (79%)
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Applicants not having relevant experience (59%)
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Pay conditions (26%)
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Uncertain economic conditions (24%)
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Job location (24%)
Businesses plan to respond to this staffing challenge in a range of ways, the most common being to:
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Increase wages (30%)
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Increase staff numbers (27%)
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Retrain existing staff (23%)
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Rearrange job roles and responsibilities (21%)
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Increase staff hours (19%)
The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ most recent labour data reveals why businesses are hit with staff shortages right now, with several factors creating a ‘perfect storm’ with conditions not seen for quite some time.
Australia’s unemployment rate fell from 3.9% in May to just 3.5% in June, the lowest since 1974 according to the report. This is typically a good sign in that it paints a picture of an economy that is strong and performing well. Whilst this may in part be the case, there are other factors at play, such as limited migration and available staff from overseas markets entering Australia.
As a result, there is now just 1.0 unemployed person per job vacancy, compared to 3.1 before the pandemic.