Loss of labour continues to present a challenge to businesses in Fiji, as highlighted by business executives who were part of a survey conducted by the ANZ Research team for its June 2023 survey.
“We surveyed about 350 ANZ customers across a range of industry sectors,” shared ANZ’s international economists Tom Kenny and Dr Kishti Sen.
According to the responses received from business executives, shortage of labour, especially skilled labour, remains as the main risk to Fiji’s growth prospects.
It highlighted that Fiji continued to lose a large share of its workforce to overseas employers, and that was leading to an acute shortage of workers in key sectors including construction, manufacturing and tourism.
This loss was leading to wage increases that were above both inflation and improvements in productivity.
Meanwhile 60 per cent of the executives surveyed anticipate consumer price inflation (CPI) will rise over the next 12 months.
According to ANZ’s economists lifting female participation in the workforce is one way to overcome the attrition of labour.
With the female labour force participation rate hovering around 40 per cent, the report says there is scope to push it higher and above 60 per cent, which is the average for developing countries.
Some of the executives also suggested that legislative and policy stability and timing of some major project commencements could also be a solution to overcoming labour shortages.
