A new survey from Localsearch reveals that small- to medium-sized businesses are still struggling to fill jobs in the midst of a continuing skills shortage.
The research from the Australian digital services provider has found that more than half of SMEs surveyed have failed to fill advertised positions in the last 12 months, with more than 40 per cent of SMEs surveyed facing restricted business growth and more than 60 per cent being unable to keep up with the day-to-day business operations due to skills shortages.
This data underscored the earlier findings of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which revealed that Australia is in the middle of one of its largest-ever labour shortages with more than 480,000 job vacancies across the country and almost a third of businesses struggling to find suitable workers. This issue was also addressed at the recent 2022 Jobs and Skills Summit, where it was made clear that immediate action was required to address the national skills shortage facing Australian businesses.
Localsearch has stressed the need for greater support for SMEs, who make up more than 98 per cent of businesses in Australia today, with Executive Chairman Daniel Stoten saying, “Our mission at Localsearch is to continue helping the mum and dad businesses of Australia grow their businesses and their online presence. We’re doing all we can to support the online growth, visibility and development of our clients, however, as the survey results illustrate, it’s clear that more needs to be done to ensure they can continue to prosper.
“We operate in the technology industry, specifically through providing digital marketing presence solutions which are also being affected by the national skill shortage issues,” Stoten added. “What is more prevalent, though, and might be currently overlooked, is that the skills shortage issue affects all Australian businesses across all sectors regardless of the size of those businesses. A construction firm up in the Gold Coast will need more labourers while a bakery down in Melbourne might need more SEO and website development assistance to be seen online and help with sales. We must continue to support and service these businesses with the tools we have available.”
Director at Red Centre Technology Partners, Craig Reid said, “As Central Australia and remote Northern Territory’s leading integrated solutions provider for IT and Technology, we have a number of businesses that rely on us to provide fast and effective support. As we continue to work through the skills shortage we’re finding it increasingly difficult to do this.”
