South Africans sought to fill skills gap

SOUTH Africans are to be recruited to fill council jobs inWestern Australia as statewide skills shortages sparked by the booming mining sectorthreaten to decimate local government services.

The move comes on the heels of a new survey showing that difficulties attracting andretaining staff in the state are having a negative or very negative effect on arecord 71 per cent of businesses.

State Local Government Association president Bill Mitchell said the shortage was soserious that the prospect of councils having to reduce services was "a very realpossibility and probability".

Long delays for planning approvals and engineering work were likely if skilled staffcould not be found.

Mr Mitchell said councils taking part in the South African recruitment drive wouldpay success fees of about $4000 for every vacancy filled but considered it wellworth the money.

The association gave a shopping list of 80 jobs to recruiters, who will travel thisweek to South Africa hunting for town planners, engineers, accountants andenvironmental health officers.

Local government is Western Australia's third-biggest employer, with about 14,000jobs, but Mr Mitchell said more than 10 per cent of jobs were unfilled as the sectorcompeted with the booming resources industry.

The latest Commonwealth Bank-Chamber of Commerce and Industry business expectationssurvey found a record 76 per cent of businesses were worried about labour shortages,and many reported having to pay higher wages and incentives to keep staff.

Mr Mitchell said many councils were helping to pay HECS debts for new employees asone of a range of incentives.

In the September quarter, the index of non-wage labour costs surged to its highestlevel since the survey began in December 1997, and 38 per cent of respondents saidthey expected to raise prices in the next quarter as a result.

West Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief economist John Nicolaou saidovercoming labour shortages must now be a priority for the state and federalgovernments.

"While shortages are still most pronounced among skilled workers and professionals,critical shortages have now also been observed among lower-skilled labouring jobsand junior workers," Mr Nicolaou said.

With business expansion and growth set to continue at a rapid pace, he said, labourshortages would remain a problem for some time. More than 40 per cent of respondentsreported they wanted to hire more staff in the coming quarter.

Western Australia's record low unemployment rate of 3.1 per cent is causing problemsfor the state Government, which has more than 900 vacancies advertised. Last monthalone, more than 3300 new jobs were created in the state.

Police have been forced to recruit overseas to cope with a shortfall of about 120officers. The force's recent recruitment drive in South Africa attracted about 300applications, which are now being worked through.

Police Minister John Kobelke said that in the past 18 months more than 270 officershad been recruited from countries including Britain, Ireland, South Africa,Singapore, Denmark and The Netherlands.

Mr Mitchell said councils would spend about $200,000 this year promoting localgovernment as a career that offered a better quality of life for workers than theresources industry.

"You can get big money in the mining sector, but you need to weigh up lifestyle witha job that is two weeks on and two weeks off against what we offer - like flexiblehours, childcare, job-sharing and the like."

---Amanda O'Brien, The Australian

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Source: Express-Press-Release.com

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