‘Please take a job’: Queensland businesses at breaking point

Queensland currently has more than 35,500 job vacancies and desperate businesses want to know where are all the workers?

Tens of thousands of jobs are going begging across the state with businesses still reeling from COVID-19 struggling to fill the vacancies – impacting bottom lines and employers’ mental health.

In what’s been dubbed one of the hardest challenges employers have had to tackle since the pandemic struck, Queensland currently has the highest number of job advertisements since just before the Global Financial Crisis in 2008.

Desperate sectors have called for the Commonwealth to extend its working holiday maker visa, while others are pushing for an expansion of the program that’s offered to seasonal workers from the Pacific Islands.

Grey nomads are even being urged to lend a hand, while pubs are being forced to hold onto unreliable staff out of desperation.

More than 35,500 jobs are currently advertised on SEEK for Queensland, with the majority of those labourers, welders, electricians and cleaning.

And during March, there was the lowest number of applications per ad since 2012.

Publican Darren Carter at the Torquay Hotel in Hervey Bay where he is struggling to hire staff in a town with one of Queensland's highest unemployment rates. Picture: Lachie Millard.

Darren Carter, who is a director to four hotels across Queensland including the Torquay Hotel in Hervey Bay, said opening hours had been restricted because they couldn’t find chefs and qualified bar and gaming staff.

He said some staff had left to work at other hotels, forcing him to question whether businesses were now poaching employees.

“We’ve had staff dictate what they can do,” he said.

“They show up for some shifts and not others – we’re in dire times, we can’t afford to get rid of them.”

This is despite unemployment in Hervey Bay hitting 8.5 per cent last month – the highest since 2015.

Mr Carter said people would walk in looking for work at 10am with no experience, then start their first shift seven hours later.

But he said there had been some relief recently, having found some bar staff this week.

Richard Shannon from Growcom.

His concerns were echoed by Richard Shannon at Queensland’s peak horticulture body Growcom, who said the industry was bracing for the peak of the jobs shortage to hit in June.

“Peoples’ perception of getting their hands dirty … sadly as a society I think we have lost respect for that work,” he said.

“Picking our food is not beneath us.”

About $35 million worth of crops have been lost since December – all due to insufficient labour.

Mr Shannon said a quarter of growers had reported concerns about their mental health while a third had reported financial stress.

“We need to rebalance our workforce toward a more willing, more productive, more secure workforce,” he said.

“We already knew it before COVID, but it certainly highlighted our over-reliance of backpackers.”

Restaurant and Catering Australia chief executive officer Wes Lambert. Picture: Supplied.

Restaurant and Catering Australia CEO Wes Lambert is pushing for the Federal Government to introduce a COVID workforce recovery visa that could be granted to vaccinated international travellers.

They would have to pay their own way but undertake a shorter quarantine stay.

“The bottleneck is hotel quarantine spaces,” Mr Lambert said.

“Imagine if you cut the number of days to a third.”

Queensland Hotels Association chief executive Bernie Hogan said finding qualified staff was one of the hardest thing businesses were going through.

“It’s hindering our recovery,” he said.

“We would like that they (Commonwealth) extend working holiday makers visas immediately and work with one employer for at least six months.”

Australian Industry Group state head Rebecca Andrews said the number of job vacancies would be the hardest – if not the second hardest – issue facing businesses.

“Someone said to me the other day, ‘I just need to find humans’,” she said.

“In the manufacturing space, people aren’t scaling up because they don’t have the people to do it.”

Asked what was causing this, Ms Andrews said skilled migration wasn’t possible at the moment because the country’s borders were shut.

Burke and Wills Roadhouse near Four Ways in North-West Queensland.

In a cry for help to find staff, the Burke and Wills Roadhouse, south of Normanton, took to Facebook this week.

“We are getting busier and busier each day which is exactly what we’ve been working so hard to achieve but we cannot find employees to share the workload with,” their post read.

“Every remote town/roadhouse/pub in all the surrounding towns are all in the same situation; no-one can find employees/help.

“Maybe some Grey Nomads want to help out for a few weeks at a time?? If the GN population worked their way around Australia & stopped at all these rural pubs & roadhouses around Australia they’d be helping these rural businesses back on their feet!!”

Following an outpouring of support, the roadhouse has since found six people to help.

Employment, Small Business, Training and Skills Development Minister Di Farmer said the government was committed to creating more jobs and providing Queenslanders with the skills to fill them.

“The Palaszczuk Government takes training seriously – in this year’s budget alone we invested $1 billion in skills and training – this includes $200 million into our Future Skills Fund including an extra $100M for the Equipping TAFE for our Future program for new and improved TAFE facilities,” she said.