Almost a third of employing businesses are having difficulty finding staff, with the main reason simply being a lack of applicants.
The survey from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has further highlighted the well documented skills crisis effecting all sectors.
Small firms (29 per cent) were less likely than large and medium-sized enterprises (66 and 62 per cent) to experience difficulty hiring qualified employees. However, almost half of the small firms affected saw significant impacts.
The two most often cited causes were a shortage of candidates (cited by 79 per cent of respondents) and applicants lacking the necessary abilities (59 per cent).
“This is consistent with the improving labour market and low unemployment rate at the moment,” Tom Joseph, head of Industry Statistics at the ABS, said.
The unemployment rate in May remained at 3.9 per cent, the lowest rate since 1974.
31 per cent of businesses in the construction industry are having difficulties finding suitable staff to fill any jobs, according to the ABS, which said 1,177,000 people are employed in the sector.
According to the businesses surveyed in the study, 30 per cent of companies plan on increasing wages while 27 per cent are looking to hire more staff.
According to the OECD, Australia is currently suffering the second worst skills crisis in the developed world, and while our borders are open to immigration, the OECD said it is not expected to be sufficient enough to alleviate the tight labour market.
The budget papers predicated that net overseas migration to be 41,000 in 2021/22, 180,000 in 2022/23 and 213,000 in 2023/24 and then rise to 235,000 in successive years, close to the 239,000 achieved in 2018/19.
This skills shortage has also led to many workers anticipating a pay rise this financial year, according to Hays, which said up to 89 per cent of property employers will increase salaries in their next review.