Australia’s jobs market has staged a dramatic turnaround since the COVID-19 pandemic hit. From fears of mass unemployment, Australia is now facing a possible shortage of labour.

For the first time since the mass lockdowns, unemployment has dropped below pre-pandemic levels, with an estimated 115,200 jobs created in May.

According to Bjorn Jarvis from the Bureau of Statistics, the declining unemployment rate continues to align with the strong increase in job vacancies. With a sharp drop from 5.5 to 5.1 per cent, the unemployment rate was now lower than it was in March 2020 and the same as it was in February of that year.

This is now the new problem facing employers like Jared Fitzclarence of KAW Engineering, as Western Australia’s Pilbara mining region booms again. Several new projects are coming in, but the bottleneck is now in finding staff to do the work.

During the mining construction boom about a decade ago, KAW Engineering had a peak staff of 47, before it dropped off to about 12 workers during the downturn. Workforce is now back up to 47 and is still growing as the company is still trying to hire more staff.

Aside from the mining industry, professional sectors such as finance, legal and technology are also experiencing some of the strongest demand for workers.

With the international border closed now for almost a year and a half, and government forecasts hinting Australia will remain closed for another year, there simply is not the expanding talent pool employers are used to. Which means that the balance of power is now shifting towards workers in terms of wage demands.

However, a growing number of economists are predicting that, with closed borders cutting off a large source of migrant workers, wage growth will soon accelerate. Today’s jobs data certainly support an upbeat assessment.

Full-time employment increased by 97,500 in May, while part-time employment rose by 17,700.

Source: Link

Date of Publication: 18 June, 2021