Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has announced that the Victorian Government will be joining forcing with leading supermarket chains to fill workforce shortages by linking thousands of Victorian based jobseekers with food retailers.
After announcing the campaign earlier this month, Jobs Victoria can reveal that they have already received more than 2,000 Victorian jobseekers expressing their interest in working at Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and wholesaler Metcash as an outflux of Covid-positive employees leave retailers understaffed.
Roles that are currently being advertised include pick-packers to assemble online orders, night-fillers to restock shelves, cashiers, delivery drivers and forklift operators.
“We’ve had some 2,000 people register their interest to work in our supermarket system and that’s critically important given that there are hundreds, indeed, thousands of staff whether it be at Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, or wholesaler Metcash who have not been able to report for duty. That’s behind the scenes – the government working with our supermarkets to give people who are out of work, the skills and support they need to do the job that we need them to do,” says Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.
The state government also plans to supply 25,000 rapid antigen tests (RATs) on a cost recovery basis to critical utilities and food supply chain services, including meat and poultry suppliers.
“Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen every part of the food supply chain has been impacted through team member isolations and workforce not being available. Whether that’s farmers, food processers, manufacturers, transport – it’s impacted in our own distribution centres in Coles and in our own stores. Many team members have stepped up and taken on additional hours,” says Coles executive general manager of central operations & transformation Kevin Gunn.
To try and manage the demand, Coles has provided further skills training to 77,000 employees in order increase flexibility as challenges continue to arise.
“We’ve been working with Jobs Victoria, who have done an amazing job. We’ve had over 1,000 candidates come forward. I’m delighted to say we’ve got some team members who have actually started and are actually in our distribution centres. We are working hard to recover the situation across our stores, and our supply chain and things are getting a little better every day,” says Kevin Gunn.
245,600 Jobs Across Australia Were Advertised Online in December 2021
The current demand for jobs in farming, animal and planet specialists is at a record high in Australia.
CommSec senior economist Ryan Felsman outlined that the unusually high summer rainfall in regional areas had boosted employment openings.
‘With the end of the drought, significant rainfall, improved seasonal growing conditions, elevated soft commodity prices and strong global demand for food and beverages, demand for farmers, skilled animal and horticultural workers have all surged with job ads at record highs, says CommSec senior economist Ryan Felsman.
There were over 250 farmer related jobs advertised on the internet last month. This is a record for jobs advertised online since stats were first complied in January 2006.
Records were also set for skilled animal and horticultural workers with 1,606 jobs advertised, and jewellers, arts and other trades 1,157 jobs advertised.
Australian workers are also needed to care for others, with the current demand at record levels for health and welfare support workers at 2,095 ads and carers and aides with 11,905 ads.
The hospitality sector is also in desperate need of staff with 9,847 ads for hospitality workers and another 3,462 jobs currently available for food preparation assistants.
The major reason for so many new job positions being advertised is because restaurants and cafes had hired staff since the Delta outbreak lockdowns, and consumers began to show more desire to dine out again despite the spread of Omicron.
“’Australia’s labour market is tightening, despite recent disruptions caused by the surge in Covid-19 Omicron virus variant infections,” says Ryan Felsman.
In December 2021, 245,600 jobs were advertised online, marking a 46 percent increase when compared with the number of jobs advertised in February 2020 before the pandemic.
In 2021, job advertisements climbed by 37.4 percent or 66,900, with the Nationals Skills Commission compiling data from employment site Seek.