Skilled workers are needed in the Murraylands, employers say

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If you’re a skilled worker, you can have your pick of jobs in the Murraylands at the moment.

The unemployment rate has plummeted, and employers are crying out for staff with skills or experience in industries like hospitality, or workers with a willingness to learn about meat processing.

There just aren’t enough people to go around, Murray Bridge News was told at a jobs and skills showcase at Murray Bridge’s Unity College last week.

Thirty-five employers made pitches to about 300 potential workers at the event, which targeted people currently looking for jobs, rather than school students still making up their minds about their future career paths.

The most common refrain from the recruiting managers Murray Bridge News spoke to was that people with skills, or even a basic level of job-readiness, were scarce.

Major employer Thomas Foods International’s representatives said that 50 per cent of applicants failed a basic medical test given to all new employees, and that more never made it past an interview stage.

But those who made the cut, so to speak, could get cash grants to take a six-month certificate course in meat processing, giving them the skills they would need to stick in the industry.

The company preferred to hire locals, a TFI spokeswoman said, but made every effort to help workers from elsewhere settle into the community, showing them where to find shops, sporting clubs and churches.

The other problem common to all employers, of course, was housing – there wasn’t any.

Even SA Police, the Australian Defence Force and the state Department of Corrections were represented at the jobs showcase, which was organised by federal government agency Local Jobs Murray and South East.

Almost everyone who wants a job has got one

The unemployment rate in the Murray Bridge district was just 3.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2024, according to Jobs and Skills Australia estimates.

That’s half of what it was a year ago, half a point below the state average, and down from around 10% at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The unemployment rate was similar in neighbouring districts: 2.8% in Mid Murray, 2.5 in the Coorong and a measly 1.9 in Alexandrina.

That’s close to, or at, what economists call “full employment”: a state where the only people who remain unemployed are those whose skills don’t match up to the jobs available in their area.

More than 900 new jobs were created in the Murray Bridge district over the past 12 months.

The number of unemployed people fell by about 250 even as an extra 700 people entered the local job market.

About 350 locals were still looking for work in the March quarter.