BCEC Report

Bridging the Gap: Population, skills and labour market adjustment in WA

Report SeriesFocus on WA
PublishedSeptember 2022
PublisherBankwest Curtin Economics Centre

This sixteenth report in the Focus on WA series takes a rigorous look at skills shortages and labour market dynamics in the WA labour market and provides a fresh conceptual look at what skills shortages are, new empirical evidence on how they arise, as well as potential responses by government and industry.

The report explores barriers that prevent fuller engagement in the labour force as well as solutions in the short term and longer term that would improve access to employment opportunities, and by doing so, capitalise on Australia’s potential workforce talent.

In addition, the report assesses the process and speed of labour market adjustments across Australia’s states and territories and highlights the unique features of WA’s labour market that impede efficient adjustments and prevent the full utilisation of potential labour.