Australia needs 130,000 workers
05 November 2015 by News Desk
Australia needs over 130,000 new workers to meet growing demand in the country’s tourism industry.
Right now, 56,000 workers are urgently needed across Australia to meet the continuing boom in tourism and this number will grow to 130,000 over the next five years, according to latest government figures. Almost 600,500 tourists visited Australia this year, an 8% increase on 2014, and they spent $3.25 billion during their visit, a 10% rise on 2014.
Over half of all tourism businesses in Australia say they are experiencing a major problem with recruitment and/or lack of skills. Kitchen hands, waiters, café and restaurant managers, and chefs are currently the most in demand occupations.
Western Australia, Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory have the highest level of recruitment difficulty, while unfilled vacancies are the highest in the Northern Territory (16%), Australian Capital Territory (13%), Western Australia and Victoria (10%), New South Wales and South Australia (7%), Queensland (6%) and Tasmania (4%).
The total number of vacancies is largest in the Melbourne and Port Phillip Bay, South Coast, Sydney and Surrounds, and Northern and inland NSW regions. More than 30,000 extra workers are needed in Sydney and Melbourne alone.
In New South Wales and Victoria around 35,600 new workers are required to fill vacancies in the tourism industry.
Eastern Victoria, Rest of South East SA and Rest of WA are also facing major problems in filling positions.
More than 500,000 people currently work in the tourism industry in Australia, with bar attendants, waiters and commercial housekeepers the most common occupations, accounting for around 25% of all tourism industry workers. But this figure will need to grow by 130,000 additional workers by 2020 in order to meet forecast growth in tourism, according to the latest report from the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism.
