More women and better technology are the keys to the tradie shortage crippling Australia’s building industry, construction leaders say.
Attracting more women to construction jobs would help the industry deal with increasing demand across residential, commercial and industrial projects, said Christina Yiakkoupis, chair of the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC).
“Making the trades more appealing and more open to 50 per cent of Australia will definitely go a long way in helping,” she said.
“People just don’t have the information they need. In my role now I’ve met with a lot of careers counsellors at schools who are seeking information so they can then pass on to students because they just don’t have resources.”
Women in represent just 13 per cent of Australia’s construction workforce, while women in trades account for just 2 per cent. NAWIC’s goal is to for women to represent 25 per cent of the construction workforce by 2025.
“We recognise we need to set goals to strive towards something happening, otherwise we’re going to sit stagnant like we have for the past 20 years,” Yiakkoupis said.
A lack of affordable childcare was preventing many women, and men, from considering a move to construction, Yiakkoupis said. This was being compounded by many childcare centres not being open early enough for construction workers to drop off their children before starting on the job.
“We need to make the industry more inclusive, open and supportive,” she said.
“All these things need to happen and they are happening, and we do see changes day to day, but not fast enough.”
Skilled trades are have been in short supply since the COVID-19 pandemic closed Australia’s borders to skilled migrants. The latest Housing Industry Association report showed trade availability dipped to -0.92 in the June quarter with the bricklaying, carpentry and roofing feeling the shortages most acutely.
While international supply chains are easing the price of timber and interest rate rises are pushing back demand for new builds, the HIA predicted labour constraints would persist into 2023 if COVID-related staff absences continue and overseas workers can only slowly return.
Besides an increase in skilled migration, the shortage of tradies could be eased with better technology and productivity systems, said Jon Davies, chief executive of the Australian Constructors Association.
“We waste huge amounts of highly trained engineering resources working on overly lengthy tender processes, that call for information that will never be read and provide information that cannot be relied upon, just to give the illusion of value for money and avoid liability for anything,” he said.
“Most digital technologies rely on open and transparent information, but the contracts we have been using to deliver projects are adversarial and encourage hording of information as it can be used to prepare or defend a claim.
“The benefits of some digital technologies, like Building Information Management, are only realised during the operation and maintenance of the end asset and so if not called for in the tender documents, will not be included by the contractor as they are expensive to run and add little benefit to the contractor.”
Davies said the construction industry would make billions in productivity gains if the federal government reformed the industry to ensure money was well spent.
“Building on the success of existing ratings schemes, Future Australian Infrastructure Rating (FAIR) proposed by the Australian Constructors Association, proposes to rate government funded projects on how well they performed against key reform areas including improved productivity,” he said.
“If implemented, $15 billion in productivity gains could be achieved every year and the fundamental issues threatening the sustainability of the industry finally addressed.”
