Australia’s biggest company can’t find workers.
Specifically, skilled migrant workers.
That’s the revelation from mining giant BHP’s chief financial officer – a bombshell he dropped on business leaders at a forum in Melbourne this week.
David Lamont says the situation is not unique to BHP. It’s an Australian problem, but it’s not unique to Australia. And the effect flow is affecting everything.
Lamont spoke of the desire for “certainty” in a world where, courtesy of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, everything is uncertain.
“We have to plan not just for tomorrow, but for five, 10, 15, 20 years,” he said. The Australian Strategic Business Forum last week.
He said one of the main issues holding back Australia’s recovery is the labor shortage. For big business, it’s specifically a shortage of migrant workers fueled by two years of closed borders.
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While the borders are open again, the workers haven’t returned… anywhere, it seems.
“I’d like to find this black hole where everyone is running because we’re struggling to find them,” Lamont said.
“The biggest problem for us is actually not so much the cost of labor but the shortage of labor.
“Previously we’ve been able to rely on immigration to help here in Australia to offset some of the wage needs that we have, whether it’s a cleaner on a job site to our skilled staff that we need to operate the business.
“So labor productivity is a key focus, but skills and skills shortages are also the main issue for us, if you look not just directly at our own operations, but at the communities where we operate.”
Asked where the workers have gone, Lamont said he had not seen them anywhere during trips abroad in recent months.
“That’s a really good question because I don’t know the answer to that because [I’ve] I’ve traveled all over the world recently and I don’t know any economy I’m going to – everyone’s fighting for work,” he said.
“A fair [bit] of that, I think, probably [because of Covid-19]but people have it [also] rethink how they really want to work.
“We have a lot more people part-time in the economy, but I certainly think immigration has played a role in various parts of the world.”
A lack of skilled migrant workers arriving in Australia has forced Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan to appeal to the federal government for help.
His government this week launched a register to connect WA businesses with overseas workers.
The Western Australia reports that unprecedented labor shortages are “crippling growth across industries as well as the delivery of basic services in areas such as health and aged care”.
But industry leaders say Australia is no longer a first-choice destination for workers.
Deloitte’s national head of immigration, Fiona Webb, says skilled migrants don’t want to work in Australia because it has developed a bad reputation overseas.
He said they accepted jobs in different parts of the world because they were wary of Australia’s border situation and because they could not wait for visa approvals.
“The slow nature of ours [visa] The prosecution, coupled with uncertainty about the path to permanent residency in Australia, means employers are losing good candidates to other markets,” he said. The Australian.
“These candidates often have offers on the table from two or three countries.”
The problem is compounded, he said, as Australia sees its own skilled workforce walk out the door.
“Also, we’re about to get out of Australia as the 18-25 year olds want to go overseas again, they now have the ability to do that,” he said.
Read related topics: EmploymentMelbourne