As companies struggle to fill jobs, what are the budget measures designed to ease recruitment?
What does the Albanese government’s first Budget mean for employers and HR?
Treasurer Jim Chalmers set out to strike a balance between boosting confidence among businesses and households while avoiding major spending that would add to inflation which is expected to peak above 7% later this year.
Chief among the pain points for business is the ongoing struggle with staff shortages.
In response, the Budget cemented some of the measures outlined at the recent Jobs Summit. An increase to the permanent migration program from 160,000 to 195,000 for this financial year, investing $42.2m to accelerate visa processing and 180,000 fee free TAFE places to be delivered next year, are designed to bring in more foreign workers and raise the skills of home-grown talent.
More than $530 million is to be allocated to paid parental leave that will increase participation for women and men in the workforce, with families able to take advantage of up to 26 weeks of leave by 2026.
Early childhood education and care subsidies are to increase for more than 1.2 million eligible families to help with the impact of inflation and cost of living hikes. Business NSW chef executive Daniel Hunter says “subsidies are expected to increase the paid hours worked by women with young children by up to 1.4 million hours a week. This is the equivalent of 37,000 extra full-time workers and will be welcomes by families and businesses alike”.
Overshadowing the Budget in the minds of many business people are the planned industrial relations changes due to be announced in the federal parliament later this week.
“With such a challenging economic environment laid out in this Budget, the last thing businesses need is both the looming threat of industry-wide bargaining supported through crippling strike action and spiralling wage costs,” says Hunter.
“Business, unions and government need to work together to support genuine, democratic workplace agreements and avoid job-killing industrial action from a bygone era,” Hunter says.
