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Over a quarter of businesses faced staff shortages in June: trend expected to increase

In June, 19% of employing businesses reported that they did not have enough employees based on current operations, compared to 12% in March 2021 and 15% in December 2020.

Businesses in Construction (29%) and Retail trade (27%) were the most likely to report staff shortages.

Staff shortages Key Statistics

  • In June, 27% of businesses reported having difficulty finding suitable staff to fill jobs.
  • Almost one in five (19%) businesses did not have enough staff based on current operations.
  • Nearly a quarter (23%) of businesses expect to increase staff numbers over the next three months.

Factors influencing businesses with staff shortages

The 19% of businesses that had an insufficient number of employees reported on factors that were influencing the number of staff they had. The most common factors reported by these businesses were:

  • inability to find suitable staff (57%);
  • affordability of additional staff (48%);
  • uncertainty due to COVID-19 (42%);
  • availability of existing employees to work (34%);
  • domestic border closures (19%);
  • difficulty retaining staff (19%); and
  • international border closures (18%).

The 27% of employing businesses that reported they were having difficulty finding suitable staff provided comments on the types of jobs they were having difficulty filling. The following word cloud presents the types of jobs reported by these businesses. The more common responses are bigger and bolder.

Factors impacting ability to find suitable staff

Employing businesses that were having difficulty finding suitable staff reported on factors impacting their ability to find staff.

Factors impacting ability to find suitable staff (a)(b)

Factors impacting ability to find suitable staff
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Factors impacting ability to find suitable staff, by employment size (a)(b)
Small businesses Medium businesses Large businesses All businesses
% % % %
Lack of applicants for job(s) 73 83 76 74
Applicants don’t have the skills or qualifications required for job(s) 66 73 59 66
International border closures limiting recruitment pool 31 38 51 32
Location of the job(s) 30 21 28 29
Types of employment offered (c) 23 18 17 23
Uncertain economic conditions 21 25 27 22
Pay conditions of job(s) 17 26 29 18
Working days or hours of job(s) 12 24 17 13
Other employment or working conditions (d) 12 5 9 11

Top workforce actions, by top industries (a)(b)

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  Top workforce actions, by top industries

Businesses planning to increase staff numbers

Almost a quarter (23%) of employing businesses plan to increase staff numbers over the next three months. The majority of these businesses expected the increase in staff would be small (74%) and that most of the jobs would be permanent (61%).

Composition of increase to staff numbers over the next three months

Also read: Australian businesses ramping up overseas hiring as talent crunch continues

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