Western Roads Federation – Western Australian skills shortage

Western Australia’s recovery from the Pandemic has been better than most, but it is creating widespread issues with finding skilled and semi-skilled labour.

Not just in Road Transport, but nearly every sector of the West Australian economy is now reporting a difficulty in recruiting staff.

With Jobkeeper ending March 28th, as of 15th March it was reported that the national unemployment rate had decreased to 5.6%. The key statistics reveal that employment is on an upwards rise. Seasonally adjusted estimates for March 2021: • Unemployment rate decreased to 5.6%. • Participation rate increased to 66.3%. • Employment increased to 13,077,600. • Employment to population ratio increased to 62.6%. • Underemployment rate decreased to 7.9%. particular, Main Roads has a record five year spending program on new roads and maintenance. Even local councils have stimulus dollars to spend on roads.

We all understand our WA mining super cycle, so no need for explanation.

The trend for online shopping is also creating more demand for local drivers and transport staff.

It is a double edged sword. All of these things create demand for road transport to support them; however, a dwindling labour market being offered financial dream jobs makes it harder for our industry to compete.

Why the Labour Pool is down?

Normally, an upswing like this would see WA recruiting FIFO workers from the East or New Zealand. However, the WA State Government policy of discouraging FIFO in place of local employment and the frequent border closures has meant a decrease in the available FIFO workforce.

Even though there have been thousands of returning Australian expats they seem not to suitable or willing to work in the skilled and semi-skilled jobs.

Finally, add in no international migration and we are left with just relying on the existing WA workforce. But with

• Monthly hours worked increased by 38 million hours.

This is being evidenced recently with interstate Tradespeople being offered salaries of $108,000 per year to move to WA for work which is related to the Homebuilder grant and other incentives to encourage growth in the building and construction sector.

Western Australian building giant Buckeridge Group of Companies is offering bricklayers across Australia the six-figure sum to relocate to Perth and keep the state's building boom on track.

Superannuation and annual leave are offered on top of the hefty salary, which is about $40,000 higher than the average income of a bricklayer, along with a relocation incentive of $2,500.

Roads and Infrastructure in Western Australia is another big driver of employment. There is record stimulus spending on roads and infrastructure by the State and Federal Governments. In

a State Unemployment rate of just 4.8%, there isn’t much of that workforce left, especially when every other sector is fighting for people too.

So what are we doing about this?

On the upside, the WA Transport Industry was one of the first sectors to actually get on the front foot and start training people.

1. Unemployed Youth: Western

Roads Federation (WRF) supported and sponsored a training program through an RTO to for entry level jobs into our industry. The program has taken over 100 unemployed young people, screened them, trained them and has now placed over 80% in job where they have remained in employed for over six months. 2. HV Driver Training: Training of 1000 new drivers has commenced.

The first round of students are new people to the industry and they are being trained to HR licence level. The training includes a week intensive with the industry being mentored by experienced industry drivers. We are still refining the HR to MC training model, details of which will be announced in due course.

3. Mechanics: Try getting your car serviced at the moment, as even the repair mechanics are struggling to retain staff. This will only get worse once the road building starts and the call for mechanics to repair the yellow equipment will become very high. Diesel Mechanics etc. take four years to train, so we have written to the Deputy Prime Minister asking for Mechanics to be put on the priority exemption list.

Recently, the Mining and Business industry groups rang me to discuss what we are going to do collectively to address the skills shortage. We will support a collective effort of business and industry to put forward solutions.

There will be other on-going issues regarding the skills shortage. There are no magic bullets but at least we have been proactively trying to do something about it as an industry..

Western Roads Federation has been formed to give a strong unified voice for companies who use WA roads for commercial benefit. Western Roads Federation is a membership driven organisation. If you believe in the industry and what you do, then make sure your company is a member, and get involved. For a membership application form Email cam.dumesny@westernroads.com.au ◆ Phone 08 9365 7799 or 0481 064 371 180 Hay St, East Perth WA 6004