Skills eFlash #122
Date: 09-Oct-2023
In this edition: Queensland’s Employment Projections | Jobs & Skills Australia’s Reports | Advocacy Works! | and much more!
1. Queensland’s employment projections to 2025-26 show strong growth
Jobs Queensland’s fourth Anticipating Future Skills five-year employment projects total employment in Queensland of close to 3 million by 2025-26, an increase of 207,000 new jobs.
The four fastest growing regions are Wide Bay (13.6%); Sunshine Coast (12.5%); Townsville (12.0%) and Central Queensland (11.5%).
The employment projections reiterate Queensland’s strong employment, with almost 207,000 additional workers projected to be employed in Queensland between 2021-22 and 2025-26. Employment growth is spread across Queensland, with the Health Care and Social Assistance industry continuing to be an employment powerhouse, increasing by 17% by 2025–26.
Queensland’s workforce is going to be more educated than ever, with 82,000 more bachelor-qualified workers and almost 44,000 more workers with Certificate III and IV qualifications.
The Anticipating Future Skills Series comprises a set of baseline employment projections for regions, industries, occupations and qualifications, as well as projections for three scenarios - digitisation post-COVID, changing skills profile and global headwinds.
Follow this link for more information or to access the Anticipating Future Skills Series Four employment projections.
2. Jobs and Skills Australia – International Labour Market Update
A new International Labour Market Update report has been released by Jobs and Skills Australia.
This new report provides key labour market data for Australia and selected overseas countries and country groups. It also reports on current and emerging global skill shortages.
In the September report, read about:
- how labour supply and skill shortages are high across the global economy
- the significant growth in job vacancies beyond pre-COVID levels for Australia and other English-speaking countries, plus much more.
The report can be read and downloaded here.
3. Jobs and Skills Australia – Skills Priority List
The latest Skills Priority List (SPL) released by Jobs and Skills Australia shows that 36% of occupations assessed are in shortage.
Technicians and Trade Workers, and Professional occupations (health, engineering, information communication technology (ICT) and science roles) have the highest shortages, particularly in regional and remote areas.
Released annually, this online tool provides a current assessment of the Australian labour market, including a detailed view of occupations in shortage and the anticipated future demand for occupations.
The increases over the last three years are being driven by the continued tightness in labour market conditions. While underlying drivers of shortages can vary across occupations, it is anticipated that these shortages reflect either a lack of people who have the essential technical skills or other (non-technical) qualities that employers consider are important; or those with the right technical skills and other qualities who aren’t willing to apply for the vacancies under current pay and working conditions.
Occupations with a strong gender imbalance were also more likely to be in shortage.
In response to the challenges employers are facing finding workers with the right skills and experience, a range of strategies are being implemented, like restructuring their organisations, using migration programs and continuing to advertise vacant positions to attract more applicants.
Read the SPL Key Findings Report and explore the SPL online tool to discover more insights from this year’s release.
4. Jobs and Skills Australia – The Recruitment Experiences and Outlook Survey (REOS)
The Recruitment Experiences and Outlook Survey (REOS) Spotlight series features analysis on topics of interest not covered in the regular monthly report, using a greater range of data available in the rich survey dataset. This month’s Spotlight presents findings on employers’ greatest concerns for their businesses in the future, based on REOS data collected from September quarter 2021 to June quarter 2023. The issue is captured by one question in the survey: “Thinking about all aspects of your business, what (if anything) is your single greatest concern in the next 3 months?”. The question, while simple, provides interesting insights into what employers’ see on the horizon for their business.
Around one in 4 employers cited recruitment and retention difficulties as their greatest concern for the immediate future.
Read the spotlight article here.
5. ABS Second Round of Consultation on ANZSCO Code Update – Advocacy Works!
Casting your minds back to the July Skills e-Flash, members will hopefully remember the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ second round of consultation for the comprehensive review of ANZSCO, which closed in August 2023.
This links to the skills priority list data released by Jobs and Skills Australia detailed above. Under-representation of our sector serves to mask what is actually happening in many of the roles that our Industry Workforce Snapshot Report identifies as being in critical shortage.
qldwater were advised that Trade Waste Officer will be added as a new specialisation to the codes in response to our submission.
Following up with the ABS team on other roles identified in our submission (and using data from our Industry Workforce Snapshot Report), the Directorate has also been successful in having two further specialisations added in this review:
- Dam or Reservoir Operator
- Water or Wastewater Networks Operator
This will give our sector opportunity to be more accurately reflected in the codes, helping to raise the profile of the urban water industry, inform national assessment and representation of training needs and ensures effective funding for staff training and development.
Advocacy will continue in further ABS ANZSCO reviews taking place in the future.
6. EOI Workforce Planning Course 2024
Throughout 2023 the University of the Sunshine Coast has been running a series of FREE courses designed to help Queensland business owners and managers fully understand their workforce, by developing an agile, flexible workforce plan to respond to changes in the business environment.
The bad news is that the popular series has now ended – the great news is that they’re back in 2024!
The Workforce Planning Course is proudly supported by the Queensland Department of Youth Justice, Employment, Small Business and Training (DYJESBT), in partnership with Jobs Queensland.
Employing principles of workforce planning and by examining the operational, tactical and strategic focus, the plan will complement and integrate into an organisation’s overall business planning.
The course is open to business owners and managers located in Queensland and is also a great way to experience what it is like to study at university and open up a pathway into a higher-level qualification. Upon completion of all modules and submission of assessment items, you will be eligible to receive a Certificate of Completion and a credit for one elective course in UniSC's Graduate Certificate in Business Administration.
The content is delivered as workshops within this short course. The weekly schedule includes the development of a customised workforce plan and helps businesses to respond to workforce needs, challenges and changes. Topics covered will include stakeholder planning and analysis, creating a workforce profile and identifying workforce supply and demand dynamics.
Participants are welcome to attend in person at UniSC locations or via Zoom. If you’d like to take part, please express your interest here.
Based on previous experience, places will fill up fast so please be quick!
7. Business Queensland Connect - Indigenous Business Month Alert 2023
Indigenous Business Month (IBM) is a nation-wide event held from 1–31 October each year, showcasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander business leadership across Australia.
This year, the theme is To Gather, Together, with the aim to ignite conversations about First Nations business and encourage and foster relationships and connections.
The Queensland Government recognises the importance of economic prosperity for all Queenslanders and supports IBM as an opportunity to shine a light on First Nations businesses across Queensland.
First Nations businesses are critical to local, regional and state economies. Queensland has a strong and diverse First Nations business sector with thriving businesses in all industries.
IBM highlights the growing number of successful First Nations businesses delivering high-quality, value for money products and services across all sectors in Queensland.
Partnering with First Nations businesses unlocks economic opportunities to build stronger, more resilient businesses and communities.
Follow this link to find out more, access resources and find local events to participate in.
8. Team qldwater WaterAid Walk for Water 2023
You may have noticed some posts about the qldwater team participating in the WaterAid Walk For Water Event which took place from 2-6 October (thanks to Des Gralton for getting us organised!)
771 million people in the world – one in ten – do not have clean water close to home. Every day, women and children walk long distances to collect and carry water for their families. Girls and boys often begin collecting water as children and girls continue to collect and carry water throughout their lives. Many girls spend hours each day collecting water, which can cause them to miss time at school. And not only that, sometimes the water they are forced to collect is dirty, carrying water borne diseases and leading to sickness in their community.
The team here managed to raise over $1,000 for the charity, which will hopefully make a significant contribution to the work of the organisation.
You can see what the team got up to on LinkedIn and donate here to help us get even closer to our target.
A huge thanks from the qldwater team to all our supporters that have or will donate.
Upcoming Events
- 13 October - WIOA FNQ Operators Interest Day and Charity Bowls
- 18 October - Wide Bay Burnett Urban Water Alliance (WBBUWA) Operator Forum, Mundubbera
- 9-10 November - AWA QWater, Brisbane
- 24 November - Whitsunday Isaac Mackay Water Alliance (WIMWA) Operator Forum, Mackay
Kind Regards,
qldwater
qldwater is a business unit of IPWEAQ
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