500,000 tradies needed!

500,000 more tradies needed to meet 1.2m housing target

Campbell Kwan AFR

Australia will need 500,000 new tradies over the next five years if it is to reach the federal government’s target of 1.2 million new homes over that period.

“We will need around 500,000 entrances into the industry for an industry that currently employs 1.3 million people,” Master Builders chief executive Denita Wawn told The Australian Financial Review Property Summit.

Those 500,000 tradies, if found, would offset the 250,000 to 300,000 tradies who are expected to exit the industry over the next five years and provide additional manpower to build at a faster rate.

“The number – that’s massive. So how are we going to deal with that? We need to actually minimise those exits and keep people in the industry,” Wawn said.

“We also need to focus on skilled migration as well and all of that being wrapped up in terms of training. We also need to maintain quality standards while we’re doing all of this. That’s not an easy fix. And that’s even before we start looking at policy statements that may or may not assist or hinder the industry.”