Unemployment figures highlight the ongoing battle for farm workers

The battle for on-farm workers has heated even further, as joblessness drops to record lows and wages jump in a starved market.

Australia’s jobless rate fell to a 13-year low last month, reflecting the tight labour market in which farmers are competing for workers.

The nation’s unemployment rate sank to a seasonally adjusted 4.0 per cent in February, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. This is its lowest rate since August 2008, down on January’s 4.2 per cent.

Victorian Farmers Federation horticulture group president Nathan Free said the figure was an accurate reflection of the difficulty many farmers, and those in the horticulture sector in particular, were facing when trying to find workers to help harvest and deliver their crop to market.

Mr Free is the general manager of Wattle Organic Farms, a fresh produce farming business in Lake Boga that relies on a team of unskilled and semi-skilled workers to pick and pack produce, and skilled workers to operate machinery.

“We’ve always had an issue getting enough skilled and semi-skilled workers but at the moment it’s very difficult getting skilled staff as well to run the tractors and harvesters,” Mr Free said, adding he believed many of workers he could historically attract had been snapped up by better-paying industries.

He hoped the lifting of travel restrictions would bring an influx of backpackers keen to work.

In seasonally adjusted terms, in February the underemployment rate decreased by 0.1 per cent to 6.6 per cent, 2.2 points lower than in March 2020.

Victoria’s unemployment rate last month was 4.2 per cent, down 0.1 points.

Last month, Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe said wages growth had picked up a little, bringing them back to their pre-pandemic levels.

However while the unemployment rate suggested 4 per cent of the population was ready to start work immediately, luring them to the regions was another matter.

Mr Free said wages were “right up” at the moment, as farmers vied for the small pool of workers.