Australian businesses are struggling to find the specialist skills they need, even as the broader jobs market softens. Remote's research found that 88% of Australian businesses say finding qualified local talent has become harder over the past year, compared with 78% globally. Nearly eight in ten (79%) say they have missed a key business goal because they could not find the talent they needed.
This is not simply a shortage of workers. It is a mismatch between the capabilities businesses need and the skills available in the right locations and timeframes. The parliamentary inquiry into skilled migration has heard that Australia is struggling to attract and retain critical technology talent across artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and energy. Science and Technology Australia has also warned that the domestic STEM pipeline is under strain as demand grows across AI, AUKUS, cyber, quantum and net zero.
Training more Australians in these fields is essential, but it will not solve every immediate hiring need. When a business needs a specialist now, waiting years for the domestic pipeline to catch up is not a workable strategy. That is why workforce planning increasingly needs to begin with the capability required, rather than a predetermined location.
Widening the search for scarce skills
Remote's data shows Australian businesses are already widening their search for specialist talent. Among the technical roles they are hiring internationally, demand for senior software engineers increased 141% between July 2025 and July 2026. Demand for game developers grew 100%, while software engineers and quality assurance specialists saw growth of 86% and 42% respectively.
Over the same period, the number of employees Australian companies hired from the Philippines increased 108%, followed by an 89% rise in hires from India and 55% from the US. These figures point to a practical response to the skills shortage: looking beyond the local market when the required capability cannot be found at home.
There is an important distinction between hiring globally to access scarce expertise and moving existing Australian jobs offshore primarily to reduce costs. Both involve cross-border employment, but the workforce decisions behind them are different. Global hiring should widen the pool for hard-to-fill roles, not become a substitute for investing in Australian workers.
Global talent should not mean greater complexity
Finding the right person is only half the challenge. Every new country introduces another set of employment laws, tax requirements, payroll rules, benefits structures and currency considerations. Without the right systems, expanding a workforce across borders can multiply operational complexity even as it solves a skills gap.
Businesses therefore need infrastructure that allows them to employ people compliantly across markets, rather than treating every international hire as a one-off exception. Technology has made it easier to hire across borders without establishing an entirely new operating structure in every country, but removing operational barriers does not remove the need for a clear workforce strategy.
Leaders still need to decide which capabilities warrant an international search, which markets offer the strongest fit and how those hires contribute to the organisation's broader workforce plan. The objective is not to make every role global. It is to ensure geography does not prevent a business from accessing a critical skill that exists elsewhere.
Australia still needs to build the talent it cannot find
Looking overseas can address an immediate capability gap, but it is not a substitute for building and retaining Australia's longer-term specialist workforce. Education, vocational training and professional development need to align more closely with the capabilities businesses will need. Australia also needs clearer pathways into emerging technical fields for people starting their careers and more accessible routes for experienced workers to reskill.
Businesses have a role to play. Workforce planning cannot stop at recruitment. Companies need to develop junior talent, invest in existing employees and create pathways into the specialist roles that are becoming harder to fill. They should also ask whether a position genuinely requires an external hire or whether the capability can be developed through training or internal mobility.
International hiring can provide expertise a business needs today, while investment in local talent builds the pipeline for tomorrow. Australia needs both.
The future of hiring is built around skills
A softening labour market does not make specialist shortages disappear. It shows why headline employment figures cannot tell businesses whether the people available have the capabilities they require.
The challenge for employers is no longer simply finding more candidates. It is understanding which skills they need, which they can develop locally, where skilled migration can help, and when a global search is the most practical answer.
The strongest workforce strategies will not treat local and global hiring as competing choices. They will be built around skills, using every available pathway to secure the capability the business needs, while continuing to invest in Australia's talent pipeline.