Where are our tradies? : a study of skilled trade shortages in the Penrith local government region

Recent labour market literature and media reports have highlighted concerns in relation to acute skills shortages arising in traditional skilled trades classifications both in Australia and globally. This article reports on the findings of the Penrith Local Workforce Skills Audit project. A key part of this project was to gather comprehensive data on the skills needs of 530 employees in targeted industries, identify skills shortages, explain the causes of these shortages and their implications. The data confirms the existence of skills shortages across a wide range of Penrith's occupations and trades classifications especially in the automotive trade areas. The findings suggest that a strong strategic response is needed to overcome these skills shortages through a judicious use of supply and demand-side labour market interventions.