interstate perspective of tasmania

Last weekend tasmanianjobs.com exhibited at the Reinvent Your Career Expo in Sydney. The objective was to promote employment and lifestyle opportunities in Tasmania to qualified, skilled and experienced people considering a sea/tree change to Tasmania.

For the two days of the expo, we were swamped with people enquiring about Tasmania. We anticipate that between the two of us, we spoke to 200+ people each day and ran out of our generic marketing material by early on the second day. The organisers advised us that we were probably the busiest stand, and we certainly had a stand out one visually, as per the photo above.

We received very good media coverage leading up to the Expo, so many of our initial visitors specifically came to see us as a result.

On the other hand, those that had not considered Tasmania as a place to live and work provided some interesting insight into the perception of Tasmania interstate.

Firstly, 100% of people we spoke to were surprised that there were employment opportunities in Tasmania. 100% certainly wanted to visit Tasmania as a tourism destination, if they had not done so already. Those that had, loved Tasmania. No one had considered Tasmania as a state in which to have a meaningful career.

100% of the people we spoke to were at the Expo because 'they wanted to get out of Sydney'. The main reasons cited included housing affordability, cost of living and transport/commuting distances. Many people wanted to live in the country but work in the CBD.

The majority of the people we spoke to were couples; of a range of ages, predominantly younger with children or older; hetrosexual as well as same-sex couples. Many were also mixed race. In addition, there were a number of older (40+) single women, highly qualified and experienced.

I was often asked 'Is Tasmania racist?' or 'Is Tasmania homophobic?' I had never given much thought to this, so found it difficult to answer but would hope that we as a state are more inclusive than we may previously have been.

In any case, I think there are certainly untapped opportunities for Tasmania to attract skilled workers to the state from 'the big Island', but a lot of work needs to be undertaken to improve the perception of Tasmania to our mainland counterparts.

dont't forget to plan for the future

I have heard a couple of reports in the past week or so of employers putting off their apprentices as a result of the recent financial market turmoil and uncertainty regarding the future. While I understand the need for caution and appropriate measures in these challenging times, the risk of this approach and failing to plan accordingly for the future is high and will exacerbate skill shortages in the long term.

The failure to train appropriate numbers of apprentices and trainees during the economic downturn of the late 1980s and early 1990s has been a major contributing factor to the current skill shortage problems we face today. If we don't continue to invest in our future today then tomorrow will hurt even more so.

the issues with interstate migrants

I am continually perplexed by the attitude of many Tasmanian organisations to employing interstate migrants.

Based on a number of discussions I have had with employers recently, it almost appears as though the consensus is that the employment of interstate migrants does not work in Tasmania. Below are some of the comments I have received recently.

• They expect relocation assistance
• They don't understand the culture of Tasmanian workplaces
• There is too high a risk of attrition
• They come here expecting us to change to the way they want to do things
• I will only employ someone from interstate if they have moved to Tasmania first
• They only move to Tasmania for the lifestyle and then think they don't have to work hard
• They have to come here for the job first and then the lifestyle, otherwise they are lazy
• They are arrogant
• I would prefer to poach someone from my competitor before I employ someone from interstate
• I would prefer to employ a local of lower skills than someone from interstate

I must admit, I have been shocked. What are your thoughts?

Collaboration: Education and training providers and industry

The UTAS Faculty of Business has recently launched a Corporate Internship Program aimed at providing a practical link between university study and the corporate environment. By undertaking an internship placement, students have an opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills acquired throughout their university experience to the workplace, and vice versa.

Integration of work and learning provides students with the opportunity to broaden their skills and prepare them for the workplace by developing practical skills sought by today’s employers.

Greater collaboration between industry and education and training providers like this will assist develop our future leaders and thinkers as work ready graduates. Greater engagement by employers with education and training providers will alleviate long term skill shortages and assist reduce the costs of training and recruitment.

The extent of segregation between men and women in the labour market in Australia

The policy proposal of the Commonwealth Government to increase the labour force participation rate of women to offset the emerging gap between fiscal capacity and fiscal commitments resulting from population ageing is misguided and misinformed and threatens reproduction, the very cause of population ageing. There is no doubt that the relationship of women, particularly mothers, to the labour force will be increasingly important as the Australian population continues to age, however, the below chart proves that women are currently not utilised in the labour market to the same degree as men.

The Index of Dissimilarity (ID) is a simple technique used to compare differences and/or similarities between two or more populations, in this case, to assess the level of segregation between women and men in the labour market, taking into account age, educational attainment, occupation, the presence or absence of children and the presence or absence of a partner. It generates a single figure index that identifies the minimum percentage of one population that would need to change for the frequency distributions of both populations to be the same.

The chart illustrates the ID for labour force status between men and women for each partner and child status variable combination, by educational attainment, for three broad age groups; 20 to 34, 35 to 49 and 50 to 64 years; as well as for the total population.

Each trend line shows the percentage point difference between the labour force status of men and women by their highest level of educational attainment. Each show the extent to which similarly educated men or women, with the same partner and child status, would have to change their level of labour market attachment for their labour force status to be the same.

Essentially, for all levels of educational attainment, the greatest degree of labour force dissimilarity exists for those partnered with children, and the least for those not partnered with no children. In other words, the presence of both a partner and a child, requires a greater proportion of men and women to change their level of labour force attachment for the labour force status to be the same.

Therefore policy intervention aimed at increasing female utilisation and thus productivity may be a more effective strategy in managing the projected impact of population ageing.

The Importance of Paid Parental Leave

The skill shortages being experienced in Australia today are a direct result of a severe reduction in the birth rate since the early 1970s, caused by women participating in the labour market at an increasingly greater rate.

Any policy addressing skill shortages and/or population ageing should therefore not be considered in isolation of fertility related policy.

Paid Parental Leave provides an opportunity for the government to set in place a policy to achieve an increase in both the level of labour force participation rates and increase fertility to replacement rate (2.1 births per woman in her lifetime).

The recently released Productivity Commission Draft Inquiry Report identifies the importance of paid parental leave to the economy and society. It believes such a scheme would:

· Generate increased child and maternal health and welfare benefits
· Stimulate lifetime employment rates of women
· Increase retention rates for business, with reduced costs for training and recruitment
· Promote the normalcy of combining working and a caring role for children

Any potential parental leave policy introduced in Australia should encourage reproduction, participation in the labour market and maximisation of the utilisation of available qualifications and skills.

The blog ‘The extent of segregation between men and women in the labour market’ discusses the current labour market scenario. An appropriate paid parental leave policy has the potential to close the gap between the utilisation of men and women in the labour market.

discrimination against the 'over-qualified'

I am regularly contacted by people who tell me that they are unsuccessful in obtaining work in Tasmania because they are 'over-qualified'.

This is particularly so for people who are considering moving to Tasmania.

I fail to understand how and why someone can be over-qualified.

I know I harp on about skill shortages (with due reason), however when someone specifically wants to work in Tasmania yet are continually knocked back interview after interview because they are too qualified it makes me wonder whether Tasmanian employers really want to help themselves.

I think it is the right of the job seeker to decide what sort of work they want to apply for. I would have thought having someone highly qualified would have been a positive for the job seeker.

What is it that is preventing organisations employing highly skilled and qualified people?

• risk of attrition?
• do they feel threatened?
• think they have to pay them more?

I am really interested in some feedback on this particular topic.