AUSTRALIA’S AGEING population will cause permanent labour shortages by 2010, making it even harder for HR managers to fill job vacancies in the future
AUSTRALIA’S AGEING population will cause permanent labour shortages by 2010, making it even harder for HR managers to fill job vacancies in the future.
Drake International recently released a white paper which found that growth in the supply of labour will be firmly concentrated in the group aged 45 years and over for the foreseeable future.
Severe labour shortages are already being felt in the skilled trades, education, health, automotive and transport and distribution sectors.
This trend will become more widespread over the next five years due to Australia’s falling fertility rate and current immigration levels, according to the white paper, The Age Chasm – successfully managing age in your organisation.
This could lead to permanent shortages as the number of new people entering the workforce declines while the baby boomer cohort retires.
Citing Australian Bureau of Statistics projections, Andrew Dingjan, national marketing manager for Drake, said 85 per cent of all workforce growth will be supplied by people aged 45 plus by 2012 – up from 32 per cent in 1992.
He urged HR managers to consider how they would structure their workforces in the future to attract and retain older workers and ensure ongoing productivity.
“While age-related labour and skills shortages are inevitable, they’re not insurmountable,” he said. “Adapting early to the labour supply problem will help mitigate some of the risks.”
Organisations that prepared and put effective strategies in place will have a huge competitive advantage over those that take a ‘head-in-the-sand’ approach.
Such businesses stand to suffer substantial profit impacts and will be squeezed out of the market through an inability meet demand, he said.
“Quite simply if you don’t have the people you can’t produce the goods.”
With permanent labour shortages around the corner, Dingjan said that workforce planning may be the single most important strategic initiative for businesses in 2005.
Research has found that Australia’s gross domestic product (GDP) could fall by 1.5 per cent in the coming decades if businesses don’t take a proactive approach to ageing.
“The extent of Australia’s labour supply problem is just starting to be fully understood in HR circles and as such, most senior managers are still largely unaware of the issues and associated risks.
“They need to be made aware of this as a priority. Achieving buy-in should be forthcoming once they have the full picture.”
