Searching For Skilled Labor Down Under

From the inbox of Meyer’s outbox:

I’m filing this in my abundant good news/bad news section of the Meyer 2000 hard drive. Bad news is that down under they’re feeling the pinch of the shortage of skilled labor workers. Good news is if your looking for work you might consider heading to Australia. Folks have done far crazier things to find a job! PS don’t let their spelling of labor throw you… means the same thing!

From the Queensland Business Review:

Skilled trade shortages ‘widespread’, warns HIA

Australia experienced a deterioration in the availability of skilled tradespeople in the residential sector over the December 2009 quarter, according to the latest Housing Industry Association (HIA) – Australia Bricks Trades Report.

HIA’s Chief Economist Harley Dale explains there was a shortage of labour in ten out of 13 skilled trades at the end of 2009, compared to eight trades being in shortage in the September quarter.

The headline HIA-Austral Bricks Trade Availability Index ticked down one notch from -0.07 to -0.08 in the December 2009 quarter, meaning tradespeople were defined as being in moderate under supply.

“Trade rates, meanwhile, are on the rise again, but remain lower when compared to late 2008,” Dale says.

The HIA-Austral Bricks Trade Prices Index increased by 0.9 percent in the December 2009 quarter following a rise of 0.5 per cent the previous quarter.

Dale says due to modest price pressure and comparatively better trade availability, it is a favourable time to build a new home or renovate.

“The clock is ticking, however, given the competition across different sectors in 2010 for a limited pool of skilled labour. There is a clear risk that labour shortages will re-emerge as a significant constraint on the rate of recovery in both new home building and renovations by the middle of this year,” he says.

“The training of apprentices and trainees needs to be afforded high priority, and so too does the encouragement of young people to not only start a trade but to complete the training. Failure to achieve this will only exacerbate intergenerational challenges.”

He maintains immigration policy is also an important focus.

“The current immigration framework is less than effective in plugging skilled labour shortages in the residential sector as distinct from the wider construction industry and HIA have sought to work with the Government to address this issue.”