Early Childhood Teachers

The most pressing challenge facing businesses today is a shortage of skills and labour. With workplaces under enormous strain, it is placing a handbrake on economic growth. Australia has faced skills and labour shortages during previous economic cycles but never so acutely as now due to the exacerbating impact of the pandemic and the extended period of closed international borders. We need solutions that not only deal with this problem now but also help to future-proof the labour market against recurring severe shortages. We achieve this by first understanding why labour and skills shortages exist and then applying a three-pronged approach to tackling them that aims to develop skills, encourage increased workforce participation and rebuild sustainable migration. To ensure we have a pipeline of future workers with the skills employers and the economy requires, we need to improve our effort in developing skills and better ensure we have the right skills in the right place. To increase the pool of people available in the labour market as well as deliver a community benefit, we need to increase participation in the workforce for women, people with disability, as well as people who are mature aged, indigenous, young and long-term unemployed. We need solutions that not only deal with this problem now but also help to futureproof the labour market against recurring severe shortages. Migration provides benefits to all Australians, but we need to change the settings of our current migration program to improve accessibility and responsiveness to provide a skilled workforce to fill gaps and additional labour that will complement our existing workforce.