Wednesday, March 23, 2011

WA labour shortage predicted

From 'The West Australian' Newspaper

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/8195905/wa-labour-shortage-looming-again/

West Australians face the renewed prospect of soaring prices and tradesmen shortages, with a string of fresh reports warning yesterday of a looming skills crisis.

With Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens predicting the current boom will be the biggest in more than a century, Access Economics used its latest economic update to predict the single largest threat to WA is the Federal bipartisan approach to shutting migrants out of the country.

Businesses have already started reporting trouble finding the workers they need to fill jobs as the economy grows on the back of major works such as the $43 billion Gorgon and $12.3 billion Pluto projects.

The State's unemployment rate is now at 4.5 percent, with a record number of men in full-time work.

Access director Chris Richardson said with both sides of politics wanting to cut immigration it would be WA that would suffer, with even people not employed in the mining sector paying the price.

He said it was high levels of immigration that had helped WA get through the problems associated with the pre-global financial crisis boom, and even then that had not been enough to keep a complete lid on price pressures.

"Our short-sighted and popularity hungry national leaders have adopted a bipartisan approach to handicapping the West by cutting back on what was its best buffer last time - international migration," he said.

"And if there will be fewer people arriving to help fill the yawning skills shortage soon to be apparent in the State, then WA can expect shortages, delays, cost increases and price hikes to be all the worse this time around."

He was backed by Australian Industry Group president Don Matthews who warned last night that immigration cuts would cost homeowners everywhere. "The fact is we need a substantial immigration program if we don't want a lack of capacity to force interest rates and wages higher and skill shortages to intensify," he said.

A report yesterday from the Housing Industry Association found Perth and WA are already in the grip of a shortage of construction workers.

The supply of tradies, from bricklayers to tilers, in WA contracted for the fifth consecutive quarter.

The shortage of workers is now back to September 2008 levels at the start of the global financial crisis.

HIA senior economist Harley Dale said bringing in skilled migrants would be vital in meeting demand in the housing construction sector.

A KPMG report also released yesterday showed it is not just the construction sector running out of staff.

More than a third of WA firms had increased their use of Section 457 visa skilled workers over the past year, with the State recording the biggest increase in the nation.

And 70 percent of WA businesses said they planned to increase employment under the system next year.

It found that WA firms were so dependent on overseas workers that they risked breaking Department of Immigration laws if they employed any more.

SHANE WRIGHT ECONOMICS EDITOR, The West Australian October 26, 2010

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