“Every one of our COSBOA members from all sectors of the small business economy continue to see this as the biggest impediment to growth or even to functioning at pre-pandemic levels,” said Matthew Addison, COSBOA chair.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, job vacancies in May 2022 were 480,100 — an increase of 13.8 per cent from February 2022 and 111.1 per cent higher than in February 2020 before the start of the pandemic.
The new quarterly report states the proportion of businesses reporting vacancies has more than doubled since February 2020, rising from 11 per cent to 25.2 per cent. The dramatic change in job vacancies has left many small businesses struggling to operate at their full potential.
“Many are limiting the hours they are open, reducing services and products, and paying dramatic wage increases not acknowledged in national figures,” Mr Addison stated.
“These employment issues are compounded by higher interest rates, as well as national and international supply chain issues. There is no indication to small business from government or national economic data when these pressures will likely subside, making it difficult to plan and grow.
“The pressure is only going up with no alleviation in sight to the number one issue facing small businesses.”
Responses from COSBOA members found that independent food and grocery supermarkets, liquor stores, and timber and hardware businesses have never before experienced worker shortages as they have seen in the past 12 months.
Chief executive of the Master Grocers Association Independent Retailers Jos de Bruin said the situation is “diabolical” as members struggle with increased wages costs and costs of doing business coupled with insufficient staff to help run their stores.
“Our industry sector has traditionally relied upon local workers in the first instance and then new migrant workers, temporary visa holders and back packers to work in their stores,” he said.
And the situation is worse in regional areas, according to the report.
Using data from the Regional Australia Institute, which, in turn, uses the National Skills Commission’s Internet Vacancy Index to track regional jobs advertised online since 2010, shows that 84,000 jobs were advertised in June after a peak of 86,000 in May.
In June, regional job ads made up 28 per cent of the national total of 303,400.
Additionally, the Internet Vacancy Index report states that regional areas have experienced a higher rate of growth in job advertisements from pre-COVID levels than have capital cities (a 95.8 per cent increase compared to 60.6 per cent).
“This data highlights the disproportionate effect that workforce shortages is having on regional Australia. Even more so than in capital cities, small businesses are the predominant employers in the regions,” Mr Addison said.
“They are the thread that binds together the fabric of local communities, and the starting point for many national supply chains. Regional small businesses grow, pack and distribute our food, and manufacture critical parts and products. It is crucial for them to find the workers they need.”
The report shows that small and micro-businesses have suffered the most impact from COVID-19 and are now also contending with sharp increases to supply costs, business loans, extreme workforce limitations and changes to the way people interact with business.
“After steady growth through 2019, businesses of all sizes suffered from a significant dip in sales as COVID began to take hold in Australia. Larger small businesses (those with a quarterly gross payment volume of over $10,000) didn’t see as much of a drop as their smaller counterparts and were able to recover faster,” Mr Addison said.
“Larger businesses were also more resilient during subsequent lockdowns to follow over the next few years. The data shows that micro businesses (with a quarterly gross payment volume of less than $10,000) may have had a harder time adapting to COVID-era shopping practices and suffered from a lack of foot traffic, less involvement in ecommerce, as well as consumers allocating their spend to more established and well-known smaller businesses.”
