Gary Prebble has been looking for two full-time staff members - a kitchen hand and a waiter - for his restaurant in Sydney since March 2020.
Even now, he’s still not been able to fill those positions.
“Right through the pandemic, we’ve been advertising constantly on different platforms and there have been no applicants,” says Mr Prebble, the owner of Bistro St Jacques in the inner-city suburb of Redfern.
In fact, instead of just looking for staff during the “open for business” months, Mr Prebble advertised for those roles during the lockdown periods, too.
“I was thinking that we would jump the gun and get in. I thought people would be looking for work but it was incredible, there were basically no applicants in that period either,” he says.
Mr Prebble has worked in the restaurant industry in New Zealand and Australia for 27 years and says it’s always been a struggle to find staff.
Gary Prebble of Bistro St Jacques in Sydney. Source: Supplied
“Culturally, in Australia and New Zealand our business isn’t seen as a particularly desirable career choice. And there [are] obvious reasons for that: there’s unfavourable and unsocial hours, there’s not a particularly high pay rate,” he says.
“As a consequence, these businesses are actually kept alive very much by migrants.”
But in the absence of those migrants and many other temporary visa holders due to COVID-19 travel and border restrictions, Mr Prebble says the shortage has gone from bad to worse.
“I have worked in hospitality pretty much my whole working life and I’ve never seen this level of shortage.”
Thousands of employers across a range of industries in Australia are struggling to find skilled labour at the moment.
“There’s undeniably an acute shortage of skills in Australia,” says demographer Liz Allen.
“If we look at data concerning projections of Australia’s workforce needs, Australia requires more than the local population can contribute … we’re talking about 500,000 people each year for the next little while.”
'Most acute shortage on record'
According to a recent report by independent advisory group Infrastructure Australia, by 2023, one in three industry jobs - that’s about 105,000 positions - may go unfilled.
Australia, however, isn't the only nation staring down such an issue.
After almost two years of restricted international travel, there’s an acute shortage of migrants and skilled migrants across the world, with many developed nations racing to entice them to their shores.
A new immigration act in Germany, which is in need of 400,000 new workers per year, is offering accelerated work visas and allowing visitors to stay in the country for six months and find jobs.
Israel has finalised a deal to bring healthcare workers from Nepal.
And Canada in October unveiled an immigration program – the most ambitious of its kind – which will allow it to bring in 1.2 million immigrants over the next three years.
“It is a race to attract skilled migrants [among] all developed economies at the moment, particularly across building [and] construction sectors,” says Housing Industry Association chief economist Tim Reardon.
Crowds of people are seen in the central business district of Sydney Source: AAP
“We have tracked the shortage of skilled trade since the year 2000 and what we’re seeing right now is the most acute skill shortage on record.”
So what’s Australia’s plan?
The Australian government has recently announced a number of visa changes that’ll boost the number of skilled migrants in Australia.
Significant changes have been made to the Temporary Skill Shortage (Subclass 482) visa, giving current holders under the short-term stream who remained in Australia during the pandemic easier access to permanent residency.
“This change is quite significant,” says Brisbane-based Rebecca Baggiano, special counsel at immigration firm Fragomen.
“Previously, there was no pathway for these visa holders to employer-sponsored permanent residency. [But] with these announcements from [Immigration] Minister [Alex] Hawke, what the department is proposing is to open up a pathway to permanent residency for this particular cohort for a temporary period of time, which is huge,” says Ms Baggiano.
The government has also announced Temporary Graduate (subclass 485) visa holders, who have been unable to travel to Australia as a result of border restrictions, will be able to apply for a replacement visa.
“When Australia’s borders were closed due to the pandemic, many Temporary Graduate visa holders were unable to come into Australia to work,” says Ms Baggiano.
“So for that particular cohort, the government has announced that they’ll be allowing [them] to reapply for a further visa and to be given a period of stay of between two and four years, or five years for Hong Kong passport [holders] or British passport holders.”
In a statement, the Department of Home Affairs said travel restrictions have prevented many offshore workers from travelling to Australia, hampering our economic recovery.
“[But] the government is committed to supporting Australia’s economic recovery through addressing critical skills shortages and workforce gaps by supporting industry to attract and retain skilled visa holders,” a spokesperson said.
Is Australia doing enough?
While Dr Allen welcomes the government’s initiatives to attract more skilled migrants, she feels “it’s too little, too late”.
“Australia has a pretty decent migration program. However, it lacks coherency - and this has been a long-running issue for our migration program … the lack of pathways for people moving from temporary to permanency and so on," she says.
“There are also quite a lot of difficulties in people being able to navigate the scheme, being able to understand their rights and responsibilities.”
Swarup Thite is an Indian national who has been living in Australia since 2016.
An Indian national, Swarup Thite has been trying to become an Australian permanent resident for many years. Source: Facebook.com/swarup.thite
Mr Thite studied Bachelor of Dental Science in India, before coming to Australia, where he completed a Master of Public Health Advanced at the University of Wollongong.
He’s 29 years old and his English is excellent - he scored 8.5 out of 9 in the International English Language Testing System.
Yet, in the time since completing his master’s degree, he has not been able to secure permanent residency in Australia.
“Once you step out in the market after completing your master's, everyone in the market is looking for experienced professionals,” Mr Thite says.
“Because I did not have experience they did not hire me. And because I did not have that sort of a job, I could not get PR. So no work experience, no job. No job, no PR.”
Mr Thite says getting permanent residency in Australia is very difficult.
“[It’s a] very stringent framework that has been formed by the government over here … when we are here in this country for two years and when we dedicate our lives and love this country, why [does Australia not] love us back and give us an opportunity to prove how we’re worth it?”
Dr Allen says Australia's reputation as a welcoming place for migrants has taken a hit during the pandemic.
“During COVID, we saw borders closed and people being instructed to return home when Australia was their home. As a result, we have done ourselves a thorough disservice by our treatment of migrants in Australia,” Dr Allen says.
“Australia needs to go hard at professing how welcoming we are here. We like to talk about social cohesion, about how good it is to live here. But it needs to be a great place to live for everyone,” she adds.
Mr Thite supports that sentiment.
“I do find the government very partially welcoming because what we see from outside, back in our countries, is that there’s a beautiful land of opportunities, lying and waiting for us to step foot in,” Mr Thite says.
“But when you come nearer and nearer, it can get really rigid.”
'We need to change the narrative'
Dr Allen says Australia needs a change of attitude towards migrants.
“Migrants don’t steal local jobs. Migrants don’t make housing unaffordable. Migrants aren’t degrading our natural environment,” she says.
“We have proven during the COVID period the importance of immigration to the longevity of Australia. So hopefully we’ll be able to change the local narratives and treatment of migrants, so we can again proudly say Australia is a welcoming nation and welcoming nation for all.”
Mr Prebble, who’s still waiting to fill those two positions at his Sydney restaurant, says “the only certainty about the current pandemic is the uncertainty”.
Yet, he’s hopeful things will change in the new year.
“There was a lot of creativity in the last two years in the pandemic; incredible things we’ve done in the hospitality space, which have been really inspiring,” he says.
“So I see a lot of optimism there and for new things to happen.”
