As Sydney and Melbourne come out of lockdowns and retail starts to heat up in the rundown to Christmas, a massive labour shortage may impede the road to recovery for many retailers.
Data from job listings search Seek showed 55 per cent more short-term jobs in retail and hospitality were advertised throughout September than the same time last year, with 20,000 casual jobs listed and 25 per cent of these in NSW.
ABS jobs vacancy data forecasts “hundreds of thousands” of retail and hospitality jobs may remain unfilled.
Research from global recruitment platform HireVue showed that job interviews in the grocery sector increased by 100 per cent in August and September, as employers attempt to fill these roles.
Border closures have locked out those workers who usually fill these casual roles in the holiday season.
Business NSW has backed Premier Dominic Perrottet’s ‘Big NSW’ plan to double the pre-pandemic migration rate to the state over the next five years.
“In Australia we rely on immigration and migration for short-term and long-term labour, so the key really is to get this bounce back,” Chief executive of Business NSW Daniel Hunter said.
