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Skills shortage

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Major projects such as Melbourne’s Metro are coming to an end - but new ones have increased the pipeline of public works to $242 billion.

Wanted: 300,000 extra workers to build roads, homes and power lines

An annual snapshot of the country’s infrastructure plans show $1 trillion worth of projects in the pipeline. But the country is short 300,000 workers.

  • Shane Wright

Latest

Rising tide of immigration.

Who really wants a ‘Big Australia’? Ignore the slogans, look at the evidence

Our analysis shows that while both major parties have influenced policy, long-term growth in migration – especially temporary migration – has been driven more by Coalition governments.

  • Alan Gamlen and Peter McDonald
Illustration by Simon Letch

To attract the aged care workers we need, Australia must do something radical

Australia will need at least half a million additional aged care workers by 2050. Current efforts to find them are just not working. We need to try something else.

  • Cassandra Winzar
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Treasury secretary Jenny Wilkinson at the economic roundtable on Tuesday.

Push to recognise overseas qualifications before unions and business clash on tax

As the federal government’s roundtable kicked off with broad agreement to tackle skills and tariffs, a former RBA governor launched an attack on Labor’s economic management.

  • Paul Sakkal and Shane Wright
Commerce graduate Ash Bryan hated multistage interviews for marketing roles – and took up a refrigeration apprenticeship instead.

‘You can earn a decent amount’: Ash has a commerce degree. But now he’s a tradie

Australia is in desperate need of tens of thousands of tradies over the next five years. Fixing the shortage all begins with tackling job snobbery.

  • Jenna Price

The May 17 Edition

Australia’s great tradie shortage | The project that could boost your dog’s lifespan | How Orwell wrote the book on Trump’s America | Soccer star Katrina Gorry

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Elon Musk and his DOGE team don’t actually care about whatever work government workers may have done, the implication is that it’s still not enough.

As Trump sacks scientists, let’s hire them. His drain is our brain gain

Donald Trump has handed us a golden opportunity. But we’d better act fast.

  • Danielle Cave
A skills shortage? Many of the skilled workers the nation needs are already living here.

620,000 workers who could solve our skills crisis are hiding in plain sight

Hundreds of thousands of overseas-trained workers living in Australia have the skills we desperately need. We just need to activate them.

  • Melinda Cilento and Violet Roumeliotis
Workers pulling together pre-fabricated building parts.

Hopes pinned on pre-fab homes as building pipeline hits $213 billion

A blowout in construction costs since the pandemic continues to weigh on building costs. The government hopes pre-fab homes might ease price pressures.

  • Shane Wright and David Crowe
Judy McMahon, the owner of Catalina Restaurant in Rose Bay, relies on foreign hospitality students.

‘Australians don’t want to do the work’: Top restaurants slam migration crackdown

Judy McMahon, owner of Rose Bay harbourside restaurant Catalina, said more than half of her employees were on visas.

  • Daniella White

Original URL: https://www.theage.com.au/topic/skills-shortage-1mr1