SA Zero Unemployment Forecast

Dec 2, 2009

New Research by the University of Adelaide's Australian Institute for Social Research claims that South Australia is heading for 'zero unemployment' by 2012.

With one third of the South Australian workforce reaching retirement age by 2012, it is anticipated that demand will outstrip supply. SA is expected to generate an extra 134,000 jobs, both new work in mining and defence and vacancies created by a surge in retirements in the health, education, administration and service sectors.  

Baby boomers are expected to retire at the same time as older workers, who suffered recent superannuation losses and stayed in the workforce. New research published through the University of Adelaide's reveals about one-third of the state's workforce of 788,900 people will be at the retirement age of 55, or older, in 2012-13.  

Executive director of AISR, Dr John Spoehr said "It's very important to start trying now and create more apprenticeship and traineeship opportunities". This is very true for the future, but in the short term this will not solve the skills shortage. Ultimately, what this means is SA is heading for significant skills shortages again, prompting a renewed migration surge of skilled labour.

Source: www.news.com.au & Australian Institute for Social Research