Geographic labour mobility is helping the economy adjust to major structural change, and has enabled wealth to be spread across the country, according to a draft report released by the Productivity Commission today.

The Commission found that Australian workers and employers show considerable flexibility in responding to market conditions. Commissioner Alison McClelland said ‘generally, people are moving to areas with better job opportunities and employers use a range of strategies to attract employees with the required skills’. The increased use of fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) practices and temporary immigration have also been critical to meeting labour demand in many parts of the country.

However, the report finds that there is room for improvement — areas of skills shortages remain and, at the same time, there are areas of high unemployment.

Visit http://www.pc.gov.au/projects/study/labour-mobility/draft for more information.

Download RDA Hunter’s submission