With employers advertising 301,000 job vacancies in August,up by 37 per cent on the same month last year,the labour shortage is turning into a pressure point in the October 25 budget when the federal government is trying to negotiate a funding deal with the states.
“The staggering jump in occupations listed reinforces the urgent need to tackle skills shortages,” said Skills Minister Brendan O’Connor ahead of the release of the new figures from the National Skills Commission.
O’Connor will meet his state counterparts in Melbourne on Friday to discuss a potential $3.7 billion funding agreement over five years,which the previous government could not finalise because of disagreements over how the states were expected to spend the money.
The federal government expects to make progress on the five-year deal,but a final outcome is not expected. More progress is likely on the $1.1 billion agreement unveiled at the Jobs and Skills Summit last month tofund an extra 180,000 fee-free TAFE places.
The annual skills priority list,to be released on Thursday,shows the number of occupations in shortage rose from 153 to 286 over the past year.
While some occupations emerged from shortage over the year,the new report lists 129 occupations that were not in shortage in 2021 but were in shortage in 2022 because of the tight labour market.