Away from the metropolitan centres and the coastal communities on the eastern side of the Great Dividing Range, it is challenge to fill vacancies that require skilled employees. Even in a city where we have exceptional education facilities in both professional and vocational industries we can find it difficult to find employees who meet the needs our businesses require.

We are part of what the NSW Business Chamber identified as a statewide skills shortage of 54,000 jobs.

The business chamber has said governments and businesses need to urgently train more people, and retrain existing workers following its inaugural Workforce Skills Survey, which measured business attitudes on employment, education and training issues, and provides a comprehensive baseline to track future sentiment.

Across the New England and North West region, there are skills shortages in manufacturing, professional, accommodation and food services.

NSW Business Chamber Regional Manager, Joe Townsend, said connecting businesses with the skilled employees who can assist with business growth was vital for the future of our economy

Coupled with the shortages in construction, Mr Townsend said these industry shortages are a major concern given the central role they play in our regional economy.

We have the ninth highest youth unemployment rate in the country, and almost half of New England North West respondents indicated that unsuccessful candidates often lacked common sense, motivation or had a poor attitude towards work.

Mr Townsend said it was troubling to see indications of a mismatch between what employers expect from their staff and what our education system is currently producing. 

Clearly more needs to be done with our business and educational institutions working together to help solve this issue.

Along the way, there might arise solutions to issues we raised earlier about attracting skilled employees to our community.

This city has much going for it, which is a great selling point for any employers seeking to attract skilled employees. It is up to our community to sell our wonderful lifestyle to potential employees.