Australia has a tradie problem

Last week, the government body Build Skills Australia released a report claiming that there simply aren’t enough tradespeople to meet Labor’s target to build 240,000 homes a year.

Build Skills Australia shows that Australia’s rate of construction per new resident has collapsed, despite the volume of homes built over the past 20 years (174,000 dwellings annually) being significantly higher than the previous 20 years (145,400 dwellings annually):

This is because Australia’s population growth surged via record net overseas migration:

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About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.