Unemployment low biting business growth

A WORSENING Geelong labour shortage is hurting productivity of local businesses, the city’s business chamber leader says.

Latest economic development statistics for the city indicates that Geelong is experiencing historic low rates of unemployment and record-high rates of advertised jobs as industries across the board struggle to
fill vacancies.

Just 2.5 per cent of workforce participants were out of a job in Geelong in June according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, a decrease of 0.1 per cent from a month earlier.

Meanwhile, the National Skills Commission found that the Geelong-Great Ocean Road region had 10,550 jobs advertised online during the June quarter – an increase of 8.2 per cent on the previous quarter.

The vacancy spike continued a trend of surging vacancies since the low point of June 2020, with the figure now about twice as high as the quarterly average for the two years prior to the pandemic, when the region averaged about 5,000 advertised roles.

Geelong Chamber of Commerce chief executive officer Ben Flynn said the present conditions were restricting local businesses’ ability to operate at full capacity and find suitably skilled staff for their roles.
“It’s exacerbated by the fact that each day, a large percentage of staff are off sick,” he said.

“There’s a real shortage of bodies, and when you add COVID and influenza on top of it, it’s really tough for them”.

“There’s a lot of pent-up demand that businesses can’t satisfy, and that’s hard for owners trying to get back on their feet.

“A lot of (businesses) aren’t able open every day or have shortened hours, such as in hospitality.

“I know of businesses that usually have 600 staff that are operating with 450 staff.

“Businesses are adapting to that, but it must be frustrating.

“They want to work and get back to their business and satisfy that demand, but it’s really tough.”

Mr Flynn said an increase in international workers and eased pension rules to allow more recent retirees to offer their skills could help ease stress across the city’s business sector.