Australia is in dire need of workers. From healthcare and teaching, to farms and the factory floor, the country is in the grip of a national labour shortage. Regional towns like Griffith, in central NSW, are crying out for more workers while those still in jobs struggle to shoulder the burden.
Across the country, 470,900 jobs remain unfilled, and job vacancies have jumped 40 per cent in the last year. The federal government has promised to speed up Australia s visa processing system to bring in more foreign workers, but there s a massive backlog to work through: almost 70,000 applications for temporary and permanent skilled visas alone. What's the real cost of Australia s worker shortage crisis?