It is facing some of the rich world’s worst labour shortages
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskBefore Australia sealed itself off at the start of the covid-19 pandemic in 2020, tens of thousands of backpackers flocked to the country every year. They came mainly from Britain, Ireland and mainland Europe. Australia’s borders reopened in February, but the backpackers are nowhere to be seen. That is causing problems across the country.
As a result, not only do pubs, restaurants and hotels have fewer patrons; they are running short of staff, too. Bars struggle to serve customers. Hotels have closed rooms for lack of cleaners. “We don’t get Australians applying for this work,” says Liam Ganley, a publican in Melbourne who has been so desperate for staff that he offered to pay for people to migrate from Britain and Ireland. Two of his group’s four venues have cut their opening hours because he cannot fill his roster.
Nor is the labour shortage restricted to big, sexy cities. It hits remote corners of the country, too. Backpackers normally fill jobs in sparsely populated resort towns as they follow the tourist trail along the Great Barrier Reef. They are allowed to extend their stay if they spend time picking fruit and vegetables on farms . Before the pandemic, backpackers supplied Australia with 80% of its seasonal farm labour. When they left it created a shortfall of 26,000 harvesters.
Australia is struggling to find skilled workers, too. Covid restrictions are not the only reason for that. The government pumped up the economy with fiscal stimulus during the pandemic. Its unemployment rate has plunged by almost two percentage points since covid emerged, to 3.5%, the lowest in nearly half a century. Some half a million positions are sitting unfilled—more than the number of out-of-work Australians.
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