Finally, shops and entertainment venues can open, houses can be built, elective surgeries are going ahead, and people can travel. There’s just one thing missing: the workers who make it all happen.

A record 85 per cent of Australian businesses reported staff shortages in February 2022: a reflection of the 3.4 per cent July unemployment rate — the lowest on record in the last 48 years.

Worker shortages are also a major issue in Singapore and Hong Kong, where the latest unemployment rates at the time of publication stand at 2.1 per cent and 4.3 per cent respectively.

‘Singapore is very dependent on immigrant labour for a number of industry segments,’ says Brendan Dunlea, ANZIIF Fellow and QBE regional property and engineering manager, Asia.

‘Given the restrictions on non-residents entering Singapore, getting key workers into the country has been a big challenge.’ 

In New Zealand, unemployment stands at 3.3 per cent for the June quarter, and the Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation estimates its sector is short more than 140,000 workers this year alone.

In March and April, some kiwifruit farmers were paying fruit pickers NZ$60 an hour, owing to the lack of seasonal workers. 

APAC countries are also competing for workers — from working holiday travellers to healthcare professionals. 

Double whammy

What’s unusual about the current labour situation is that there’s both a skills shortage and a labour shortage. So, impacted countries have too few cleaners, fruit pickers, nannies and factory workers, as well as too few IT professionals, doctors and engineers.

‘There’s a lot of industries impacted by just a simple lack of workforce, particularly where there is a large migrant population in that workforce,’ says Kristy Nicholson, national manager — safety, Mercer Marsh Benefits at Marsh Australia.

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