Immigration boost needed to tackle Australian skills shortage

Adding to the problems of a booming economy is Australia's looming labour shortage. A paper prepared for the Academy of Social Sciences Experts say the country needs to boost immigration by 30 per cent within the next 20 years to meet its growing work force demand.

Many job vacancies will be created when millions of baby boomers retire. They will also create the need for more workers to care and cater for them as they age. Australia has always relied on immigration to fill jobs and keep its economy growing, but there are now signs the level of immigration will have to be increased in order to stop a skills shortage getting worse.

Manpower recruitment company spokesman Steve Hinch says the skills shortage is already upon us. "We have 260,000 vacant jobs across this country at the moment," he said. Australian National University demography professor, Peter McDonald, has been examining Australia's population and future labour force needs. He says rising fertility and immigration levels are not enough to keep the work force growing. "Over the last 20 years or so, we've had a growth rate as high as about 2 per cent, and it's now down to about 1.2 per cent per annum," he said.