A NATIONAL SKILLS SHORTAGE HAS CREATED VARIED OPPORTUNITIES IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE COUNTRY, WRITES JOAN-MAREE HARGREAVES.

THEY’RE packing their bags, readying their pockets and heading interstate and overseas; professionals, managers, administrators and trades people from NSW are in demand to fill the skills shortages outside the state. Meanwhile, workers from interstate and overseas are filling the gaps in NSW.

There are not enough workers to replace the retiring baby boomers, so businesses are looking at employees differently, says Julie Mills, chief executive (Australia and New Zealand) of Recruitment and Consulting Services Association.

“Now we really need to take on new employees and upskill them for the workplace,’’ Mills says.

According to the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, there are shortages in positions such as engineering managers, mining-production managers and most engineering specialisations, but also childcare co-ordinators, registered nurses, most health specialists and accountants.

“Shortages of associate professions are apparent across some construction and most engineering associate professional areas and across most trades,’’ a department spokesman says. There is also a national shortage of IT and communication specialists.

Retaining and attracting staff is a hot issue and employees are being lured to other states with the opportunity to earn more cash and perhaps enjoy a more relaxed lifestyle.

Scott Tucker from the NSW Department of State and Regional Development says 27,300 people from NSW moved interstate in 2006-2007, mostly to Queensland.

According to DEEWR, the biggest net losses from NSW were sales assistants, storepeople, waiters, shop managers, cleaners, truck drivers and child-care workers.

Bernadette Dunn, chairwoman for Community Childcare NSW, says there is a shortage of diploma-qualified child-care workers and four-year-degree-qualified earlychildhood teachers across Australia.

DEEWR’s skills shortage list for Queensland for May reports that science, building and engineering professionals, including architects and geologists, are in short supply, as well as accountants, registered nurses and other health specialists, and managers in finance, engineering and mining production.

In NSW, areas in demand reflect those of the nationwide shortages, which may explain why 81,000 people migrated there from other states in 2006-07. In Sydney, the finance industry is screaming out for more workers.

“There are opportunities for accountants, particularly with experience in risk management, tax, regulatory reporting and compliance, auditors, corporate treasurers, bookkeepers, legal professionals with M&A experience and planners,’’ Tucker says.

Suzanne Fribbins, NSW regional manager at the National Institute of Accountants, says accountants are moving between states.

“Younger, qualified accountants are making lifestyle choices: the sun and sand of Queensland or Perth and money is always important," she says.

Fribbins says there are alternatives for businesses. “Employers could consider attracting mature-age professionals, or consider professionals from other disciplines who are seeking a career change, or even look at job-share or working-from-home options."

According to the DEEWR spokesman, there are many reasons for skills shortages: “[They] may result from economic or demographic change, persons not completing training, qualified workers not working in the occupation for which they are qualified and/or experienced, cyclical fluctuations in labour demand, emerging demands of new technology, lack of flexibility in wages and regional mismatches."

In many cases foreign workers are being drawn upon to fill the gaps.

“A range of migration arrangements supplement the labour needs of Australian industry,’’ DEEWR says.