Home featured Featured HR Industry Featured The labour dilemma facing businesses: a shortage of job-ready candidates Dynamic Business March 2, 2017 There were at least 166,000 job vacancies across Australia in December , indicating substantial labour demand from the business community. That said, employers are struggling to fill around 30% of skilled job vacancies . With 720,000 unemployed Australians looking for full- or part-time work , there’s plenty of untapped labour. So, why do so many vacancies remained unfilled? Part of the problem is a lack of work-ready job candidates. The Department of Employment has found that for each skilled vacancy, there are (on average) 11.5 applicants, and while 7.4 held relevant qualifications only 1.9 applicants are deemed ‘suitable’. Why are so few qualified candidates deemed ‘suitable’? Candidates don’t have the level of experience employers are after or they lack important employability skills (e.g. communication skills, teamwork mindset, English proficiency). jobactive The Australian Government’s $6.6 billion job placement program, jobactive , helps employers address a mismatch between job vacancies and job-ready candidates. Employers can tap into a network of jobactive providers from over 1,700 locations across Australia to connect with screened and job-ready candidates that fit their business needs. Employers can approach their local jobactive provider for tailored recruitment services at no cost to their business. Alternatively, they can advertise vacancies through the jobactive website or free app (available from iTunes and Google Play). To ensure a supply of job-ready candidates for these businesses, jobactive providers work with reliable and