No end in sight for Australia's worker shortage crisis, says IPA
Job vacancies in Australia decreased by 18,000 in August 2024 to continue their gradual decline, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
There were 330,000 job vacancies in August 2024, down by 18,000 or 5.2% from May 2024.
"The gradual decline in job vacancies continued, with the quarterly fall in August 2024 the ninth in a row, and vacancies now well below the series peak of 473,000 in May 2022," said David Taylor, ABS head of labour statistics, in a statement.
Job ads per industry
According to the ABS, 11 of the 18 industries recorded a drop in job vacancies, with the largest declines reported in Accommodation and food services (-17.2%) and Manufacturing (-9.9%).
On the other hand, the sectors with the biggest increase in job ads were in Transport, postal and warehousing (14.9%) and Arts and recreation services (7.1%).
"Annual drops in job vacancies were seen in all industries except for Rental, hiring, and real estate services, where they were slightly higher at 0.2% more than in August 2023," Taylor added.
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Job postings still higher than pre-COVID
Despite the decrease in job vacancies, the ABS said the number of job vacancies remained 45.1% higher than pre-COVID levels.
This is also the case for all but four industries across Australia, according to Taylor.
"Vacancies were still more than double pre-pandemic levels in some industries, most notably in Arts and recreation services, and Accommodation and food services," he added.
The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) said the findings show that there is "no end in sight for Australia's worker shortage crisis" as vacancies remain higher than pre-COVID.
"Letting this crisis continue through its entire period in office shows the Albanese government is, at best, incapable, or, at worst, unwilling to put in place pro-economic and productivity growth policies that will get the nation's economy moving again," said Saxon Davidson, research fellow at IPA, in a statement.
According to Davidson, the government needs to adopt New Zealand's pension tax model to get Australians working again.
"If our federal government adopted this model for our pensioners, veterans, and students, Australia could see 520,000 extra workers enter the labour force," the research fellow added.