Reports everywhere indicate that Australia’s strong resource led economy is starting to fire up again, with the creation of 35,200 new jobs last month alone, bringing the country’s unemployment rate down to 5.5% in December, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Job creation, a wider range of career opportunities and attractive initiatives by the Australian government and DIAC will yet again start to attract skilled Kiwi professionals across the Tasman, sparking the skills crisis cycle once more in New Zealand.
Australian employers are already looking beyond their boarders for staff, especially in resource rich states such as Western Australia and Queensland.
As the New Zealand economy strengthens and the demand for labour increases, it is expected that many key industries will once again find themselves short of candidates, especially in key skilled areas. Experts warn that employers must already implement proactive strategies, both at retention of current staff and recruitment of new skills.
It is important that Kiwi businesses look beyond the first two quarters of 2010, and start looking at skilled migrants as an important and sustainable source of skills to supplement domestic shortfalls.
With the UK economy also showing signs of recovery, studies indicate that the number of Kiwis returning to New Zealand from the UK will slow. Coupled with an aging workforce, the writing is again on the wall: employers who have recently enjoyed a truce in the war for talent will need to get back into the trenches, and those who wait too long may find they’ve lost before they’ve even begun.
