Labour Demand Areas

The South Australian Primary Industries Sector has within it a very wide array of quite discrete sectors. These range from broad acre farming operations and large scale marine aquaculture farms through to small but valuable niche sectors specialising in everything from honey production to mushroom growing.

The range of occupations varies tremendously in both specialist skills and more general production skills. The service industry sectors offer the broadest single range of jobs and even in technical and managerial roles, most occupations retain a hands on role which demand a general level of fitness.

The labour force has been ageing rapidly as younger people leave rural areas and there are many instances of farmers continuing farming operations well into their seventies. This picture is most pronounced in areas of low population density and low unemployment.

It is a feature of most rural and remote areas that apart from a small resident population, there is also a smaller level of unemployment. Recent figures show that the larger regional statistical divisions are reporting an unemployment rate about 1.3% lower than the State average and almost 2 percentage points lower than metropolitan Adelaide.

Local Government unemployment data shows wide variations ranging from 7% in Playford through to 1.1% in Kangaroo Island. There are numerous regional areas reporting unemployment rates of between 2.8% and 3.6%.

These figures demonstrate that labour issues such as population and unemployment vary between sub regions and regions and even analysing this data can be quite confusing as each sub region has very individual labour force issues including age profile, retirement and pre-retirement populations, disability and pension groups, transient workers, under-employment, industry mix, industry development and factors such as isolation which limit both job and employee choice.

At a time when there is an increase in the size of farm units, there is a consequent variation in labour demand both in quantum and in work conditions and skill.

The dominance of specific industries in particular regions such as viticulture in the Coonawarra, Barossa, Fleurieu and Clare Valley presents a range of problems both in general production work and seasonal work especially pruning and harvesting. With a smaller working population that is capable or interested in such work combined with a smaller seasonal workforce, this sector and many that have traditionally relied on available casual or transient labour have been struggling to find people to continue the operations. The demand has been at all levels including, management, winemaking, machinery maintenance and operation, transport, viticulture operations and irrigation.

By contrast, the high growth of the aquaculture industry in both Kangaroo Island and the Eyre region continues to have a significant multiplier effect on the local economy and the profile of the population. As this industry continues to grow with operations that are largely year round in nature, demand has risen sharply in such occupations as occupational diver, hatchery technician, feed boat crew and post harvest personnel. At a local level, such industries have tended to draw most able bodied and suitable labour to the point where most remaining unemployed are unsuited due to either social or physical factors. This industry sector has also drawn large numbers of employees from across the State and especially interstate.

A number of attempts have been made to quantify with accuracy the demand for labour by sub–region. It is not possible to be firm with any of the figures due to recent competitive labour market movements and variable workforce attrition. Individual companies and especially the larger employers often have quite different experiences within a single region dependant on their actual location and position within the industry sector.

The Council has attempted to provide reasonable estimates of additional labour demand based on full-time positions and previous workforce growth or attrition rates for the period 2006/7. It should be stressed that the impact of a number of variables such as labour competition are still unknown which makes these figures indicative only. These are spelt out below:

Additional Labour Demand – All Primary Sectors