Range of Industries looking for workers in Tasmania

From construction to hospitality, farm work and more, there’s thousands of jobs ready to be filled across Tasmania. FIND OUT WHERE

SUN TAS. Julian Hensens and Richard Hensens brothers and co-owners of Bar Wa Izakaya in North Hobart. Bar Wa Izakaya are in desperate need of more staff and have hit a severe shortage of recruiting staff in the last year. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Despite record low unemployment, Tasmania enters 2023 facing headwinds in the labour market.

Tasmania’s jobless rate is currently at a record low 4 per cent, which is still the second-highest in the country, behind only South Australia.

The most recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that a record high 290,000 Tasmanians were in work and that the state had notched its highest ever participation rate of 62.9 per cent.

There are 10,885 more people employed in the state than there were this time last year.

But industry leaders say it’s a double-edged sword, with considerable job vacancies still remaining and a lack of jobseekers to fill them.

One industry in need of more workers is the building and construction sector.

Civil Contractors Federation CEO Andrew Winch said while the pipeline of work in Tasmania’s civil construction sector continued to grow, it was a challenge finding enough people to do the work.

“The skills shortage is a real problem with Tasmania requiring an additional 7500 workers,” he said.

“We have a goal of growing the civil workforce by 25 per cent by 2025 with opportunities in all areas of the sector from general labour staff through to engineers and senior project management.”

Master Builders Tasmania CEO Matthew Pollock said Tasmania led the nation in apprentice numbers, having “surged” past 3000 apprentices in the building and construction industry for the first time ever.

Master Builders Tasmania executive director Matthew Pollock. Picture: Zak Simmonds

However, he said the industry needed to remain focused on recruiting and training more Tasmanians, with an estimated $9b worth of commercial projects to be completed between now and 2026 and more than $20b across the next decade overall.

“Demand is really strong across all skills,” Mr Pollock said.

“If your New Year’s resolution is to get a job in construction, get in touch with the Master Builders and we will help you build a bright future for you and your family.”

Tasmanian Hospitality Association CEO Steve Old said the state’s relatively low unemployment rate meant that filling staff vacancies was challenging.

“You’re hoping that people might want to either change careers or take on a second job,” he said.

Mr Old said many hospitality workers on visas had left Tasmania to return to their country of origin after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic “because the federal government didn’t provide any support to them”.

According to Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry boss Michael Bailey, businesses were in a “reasonably positive mood after the challenging Covid years”.

Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO Michael Bailey.

“Finding the right workers for a business is always a challenge and while it’s great to see the unemployment rate at record lows, that does create issues with finding enough employees with the right skills,” he said.

“There’s demand right across the economy, from building and construction, tourism and hospitality and retail to aged care.”

In the fruit industry, growers are largely content with the labour situation this season but Fruit Growers Tasmania CEO Peter Cornish said they could always do with more workers.

“There’s about 8000 positions … and that means probably for those 8000 positions, we’ll see towards 10,000 people roll through those different positions over the season,” he said.

However, Mr Cornish said the industry needed to employ closer to 11,000-12,000 workers to reduce the pressure in peak periods.

Acting Premier and Treasurer Michael Ferguson talked up the state’s employment figures, saying they “represent real people who now have more opportunities in life to do the things they want, while strengthening our economy and allowing us to reinvest the dividends into Tasmanians”.

Mr Ferguson cited the state government’s TasTAFE reforms and its high-vis army initiative as two examples of how the government was planning for projected workforce needs.

Bar boss looking for staff

He might run one of the most popular restaurants in Hobart but Richard Hensens has been struggling to fill staff vacancies at Bar Wa Izakaya for the past 18 months.

Mr Hensens, who is the general manager of the Elizabeth St eatery, said he had even been forced to limit the number of patrons allowed in the restaurant at times due to a lack of workers.

“We have the capacity to do a lot more sometimes,” he said. “And we’re not doing it based on employment levels.”

“But we’ve still got the same overheads and all that to cover.”

Richard Hensens. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

These challenges aren’t unique to Bar Wa Izakaya but are affecting the state’s hospitality industry on the whole.

The Tasmanian Hospitality Association (THA) has launched a new campaign, called More Than Welcome, which is designed to encourage people to take up employment opportunities in the industry.

THA CEO Steve Old said it didn’t matter whether you were young or old, there were “plenty” of jobs available.

“There’s not many hospitality businesses that you don’t go through that don’t have a sign or say to you if you ask them that they’ve got a position vacant in their business,” he said.

“We’re working with the state government on a raft of initiatives, but there is no quick fix to finding the bodies and the people that might want to have a job because our unemployment rate is pretty low at the moment, too.”