Almost one in three businesses in Australia is now being directly impacted by skills shortages, with national job vacancies climbing to 237,000, according to new data from the Bankwest Social Indicators series. The data also revealed the mining states of Western Australia and Queensland are where businesses are hardest hit by the skills shortage, with 40 per cent directly impacted.

Bankwest Business Chief Executive Ian Corfield said the looming skills shortage was a concern for many businesses, particularly given the ongoing resource demands from Asia and the growing infrastructure needs following the recent floods.

“Australia is feeding the resource needs of China and India. This is putting direct pressure on the job markets in Western Australia and Queensland and it has an additional flow on effect into the other states.

“This is resulting in significant changes in the way businesses operate. For example, 36 per cent of businesses say they are paying staff more and 68 per cent have been forced to hire less experienced workers.”

Nationwide, the industries with the most job advertisements include engineering, information technology and healthcare.

“We talk to businesses every day and what they are telling us is that one of the solutions to the skills shortage is better investment in education and better apprenticeship schemes,” added Mr Corfield.

“More than half of businesses surveyed view current apprenticeship and traineeship programs as inadequate or needing improvement and 87 per cent think there should be more government funding.

“Business owners also argue migration is part of the skills shortage solution. More than three quarters don’t think the government has listened to the needs of small and medium businesses in relation to the migration debate.”

The data also showed businesses in capital cities have greater difficulty recruiting staff, compared to businesses in regional areas.

Thirty-seven per cent of businesses who have experienced skills shortages have recruited from interstate and 29 per cent have recruited from overseas. Two thirds of businesses looking for workers find it particularly difficult to recruit experienced staff.