Jobs and Skills Summit – Your Quick Guide
Against a backdrop of record low unemployment and high inflation, the Jobs + Skills Summit has an ambitious and wide-ranging agenda.
What is it?
A summit to address our ‘shared economic challenges.’
Who is attending?
Invitation only event for 143 participants comprising Government, Business, Unions, Community and Academia/Think Tanks.
Like a wedding, with a limited number of seats, family (unions) will take up a lot of places that you would have preferred to offer to others.
- Maintaining full employment and growing productivity
- Boosting job security and wages
- Lifting participation and reducing barriers to employment
- Delivering a high-quality labour force through skills, training and migration
- Maximising opportunities in the industries of the future
What is being proposed?
- Changes to the industrial relations system, to allow bargaining with multiple employers and sectors
- Increasing the permanent migration cap from the current cap of 160,000
- Increased investment in skills training through TAFE and university education
- Childcare reform
Where to from here?
- Some actions will be taken immediately after the summit while other initiatives and reforms will be implemented over the medium and long term
- A white paper will be produced on employment, which the government says it ‘ will provide a comprehensive blueprint for Australia’s future labour market.’
Conclusions
- There is consensus on the issues and challenges but great debate as to the solutions and priorities.
- With government debt ballooning, post-Covid stimulus, there are significant financial constraints and competing meritorious proposals.
- Opening the door to more skilled migrants is a low-cost/high return measure that is not difficult to implement
