Regional communities across the country are missing out on opportunities and growth due to a soaring number of job vacancies, according to a new report.
The Regional Australia Institute (RAI) has found regional job advertisements grew three times faster than metropolitan areas at the end of last year, with health positions in the highest demand.
"Despite regional Australia representing a third of the population, nearly half of medical practitioner and nursing vacancies are in regional Australia," the report said.
Michael Mbaogu has worked as a general practitioner across the country for 15 years.
He said sourcing doctors to keep his rural practice in Mount Isa running, in north-west Queensland, was almost impossible.
"I have never known the shortage to be this bad in the regions in the past 10 years," Dr Mbaogu said.
"We have five doctors servicing over 15,000 patients … the whole town has never been this short of doctors.
"It's absolutely not sustainable on a long-term basis and we do worry we will struggle to continue to provide the services that we do."
Huge increase in vacancies
Report figures were taken from the Internet Vacancy Index, which is a monthly count of online jobs advertised by Jobs and Skills Australia.
Late last year, there were more than 6,100 vacancies for medical practitioners and nurses — a jump of almost 200 per cent since 2017.
The number of online vacancies for the same occupations increased by more than 5 per cent last month.
RAI CEO Liz Ritchie said the high number of vacancies in occupations such as health and childcare impacted livability and growth in regional areas.
"If we don't have enough childcare workers then we can't have mums and dads getting back to work," Ms Ritchie said.
"If we don't have enough medical practitioners and nurses, that really impacts our medical and healthcare system."
There were also a high number of administrative vacancies, such as receptionists and call centre workers, in places like the New South Wales Hunter region.
Business Hunter CEO Bob Hawes said that had been observed since the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Regions like the Hunter have stayed high and, in our case, continued to hit peaks," he said.
"While the vacancies are there, [businesses are] not able to operate at capacity.
Mr Hawes said it was not necessarily a skills and qualifications problem.
"It's actually a people problem. We've got a constrained opportunity of bringing people into the region as a consequence of the housing crisis," he said.
Calls for action
The RAI is calling for a National Population Plan, which would ensure regional Australia is planned and resourced for population growth.
It would also involve re-designing the country's migration system, so it works better for regional areas.
Dr Mbaogu blamed the health workforce shortage on poor funding for GPs and wanted the federal government to better incentivise doctors.
"Younger doctors are reluctant to get into general practice and are choosing specialties instead because that's where they can earn the money," he said.
"It doesn't matter how many job perks and higher wages I offer at my practice if there is barely a talent pool of general practitioners for me to attract workers from.
"Unless the government starts funding primary care and general practice and makes it more attractive for up-and-coming doctors to enter that area, I don't know how this problem will be solved."
