National skills shortages are biting hard in regional Australia and threaten to widen the gap between city and country.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
National Skills Commission data has shown a third of Australia's job vacancies are in regional Australia, with national worker shortages in health care, trades, aged care and childcare.
Regional Australia Institute CEO Liz Ritchie said a shortage of builders, plumbers, electricians, machinery operators and labourers was constraining new developments and putting a handbrake on productivity growth.
"The key to addressing the region's labour difficulties is to increase the overall number of people making a living in the regions," Ms Ritchie said.
The divide was also notable in general practitioner numbers, with about 328 full time equivalent GPs for every 100,000 people in the regions compared to an average of 465 FTE GPs in capital cities.
The RAI wants to see a doubling of the proportion of new migrants settling in regional Australia by 2032 and a national plan to increase Australia's regional population to 11 million, from 9.5 million.
Australian Associated Press
