AUS
NZ
UK
CA
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Summary
- 21% businesses say they have been facing challenges finding suitably skilled workers.
- 65% of medium and large businesses plan to hire new workers in the next three months.
- Tradespersons, hospitality workers, labourers, drivers, STEM professionals, and others were categories having difficulty finding suitable staff.
Even as businesses plan to ratchet up hiring over the coming three months, finding suitable workers for jobs has become a struggle. One in five Australian businesses said that they were facing challenges while finding qualified employees as the economy inches towards recovery from COVID-19 crisis.
The latest numbers by Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released on Wednesday, 16 December 2020, report changes in revenue, number of employees and operating expenses over the last month and likely changes over the next month.
- Medium businesses (41%) are more likely to face difficulty while hiring qualified workers, as against small (19%) and large (29%) businesses.
- 65% of medium and large businesses plan to hire new workers in the next three months.
- Nearly half of medium (49%) and large (52%) businesses expect to upskill existing staff to fill skills gaps.
- While accommodation and food services (33%) and other services (33%) were most likely to face a tough time finding staff, retail trade businesses (7%) were the least likely to struggle.
READ MORE: ABS data revealed surge in International trade and housing loan commitments
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Jobs with skill shortages
The key categories that businesses reported having trouble finding suitable workers include tradespersons, hospitality workers, labourers, drivers, STEM professionals, and others.
Source: ABS update, 16 December, 2020
Data on whether businesses have sufficient employees indicated
- Based on current operations, nearly one in six or 15% businesses reported that they don’t have sufficient employees.
- Medium employing businesses (23%) were more likely to report enough employees as against small (15%) and large businesses (12%).
- Manufacturing (34%), arts & recreation services (28%), and wholesale trade (24%) were most likely to report insufficient employees.
- Medium (34%) and large (35%) businesses were more likely to report having fewer employees as against this time last year. 22% small businesses reported the same.
READ MORE: Australian economy expands 3.3% in September quarter, bounces out of recession
On the other hand, one in ten or 11% businesses recorded a rise in number of employees in December. According to the ABS data, medium businesses were thrice more likely to see a surge in the number of employees, when compared to small businesses.
Source: ABS update, 16 December, 2020
Revenue changes
The proportion of businesses recording a fall in revenue declined each month from July to November, while it remained stable (22% as against 20%) between November and December. On the other hand, the proportion of businesses that witnessed a surge in revenue in December (25%) was comparable to November (24%).
NOTE: The survey considers that small businesses employ 0-19 persons, medium 20-199 and large 200 or more.
