TY - JOUR
T1 - Skill shortages in regional Australia
T2 - A local perspective from the Riverina
AU - Sharma, Kishor
AU - Oczkowski, Edward
AU - Hicks, John
PY - 2016/12
Y1 - 2016/12
N2 - This paper examines the extent, mitigating strategies and consequences of skill shortages in the ‘food bowl’ Riverina region of Australia. Employing survey data, empirical models are developed to analyse the importance of firm size, firm age, regional market focus, and location and industry types influencing a series of skill shortage issues. Results indicate that half of businesses experience skill shortages. The consequences of hard-to-fill vacancies vary across firms and relate to lower productivity and higher running costs. A number of strategies are employed to varying degrees by firms including: recruiting internationally, training existing staff and employing less qualified staff to fill vacancies.
AB - This paper examines the extent, mitigating strategies and consequences of skill shortages in the ‘food bowl’ Riverina region of Australia. Employing survey data, empirical models are developed to analyse the importance of firm size, firm age, regional market focus, and location and industry types influencing a series of skill shortage issues. Results indicate that half of businesses experience skill shortages. The consequences of hard-to-fill vacancies vary across firms and relate to lower productivity and higher running costs. A number of strategies are employed to varying degrees by firms including: recruiting internationally, training existing staff and employing less qualified staff to fill vacancies.
KW - Food production
KW - Labour
KW - Regional labour markets
KW - Riverina
KW - Skill shortages
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84989285200&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.eap.2016.08.001
DO - 10.1016/j.eap.2016.08.001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84989285200
SN - 0313-5926
VL - 52
SP - 34
EP - 44
JO - Economic Analysis and Policy
JF - Economic Analysis and Policy
ER -
