Woodside Petroleum head Don Voelte said today that as far as his company is concerned, the issue of skills shortage would hurt most as compared to the alleged disadvantages to be brought by the controversial resources super profits tax.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) in Western Australia has predicted that the state would be hit by a severe shortage of skilled workers with about 500,000 employees to be required by numerous industries over the next ten years.

However, latest data trends and population growth pace figures pointed to a shortfall of more than 200,000 workers as CCI chief executive James Pearson said that an in-house survey among its members has revealed that labour shortages and wage pressures are the two biggest problems facing WA employers at this time.

For his part, Mr Voelte added that workers shortage is a much bigger problem than the resources tax, pointing out that "when Gorgon gets up and gets into its peak construction, when we get Browse into construction and we get Pluto expansion into construction, then we're going to definitely have a problem."

He stressed that the company's skill shortage is worse that "about 35 percent of the 4,000 workers on the Pluto gas project in the Pilbara were forced to be fly-in-fly-out workers, who are based in the eastern states."

The Federal Minister for Immigration Chris Evans has acknowledged the impending issue and is currently drafting action plans to cushion the impact of the skills shortage.

He said that the immigration ministry is looking at the possibility of some changes in the migration programme to ensure that it can deliver what employers would need, at a time they would need them.

Mr Evans admitted that the skills shortage would be pressing issue for the whole nation and at this time, "we're trying to get to an employer-driven scheme where they bring in the skills they need."