RESEARCH indicates that Australian employers are looking abroad for talent to fill their skill shortages.

This data comes from the 2011 Borderless Workforce research which also indicated that overseas talent is of great importance in the ‘engineers’ and ‘skilled manual trade’ categories — where most of these posts are being filled by citizens of the UK, India and South Africa.

Managing director Lincoln Crawley, of the ManpowerGroup, said that this migration of talent is occuring across and within national borders and growing fast.

“Employers need to take a sophisticated approach to managing their talent supply and demand, in order to win the escalating war for talent.”

Crawley also stated that Australia needs to start accepting the idea of ‘borderless workforce’ and be aware of the need for foreigners to fill shortages in skills.

“For many Australian companies, the concept of a ‘borderless workforce’ is difficult to grasp. The hard fact is Australia doesn’t have enough of the right skills to sustain current projects.”

The research also showed that certain territories have accepted this idea of ‘borderless workforce’ more than others. Western Australia, in particular, is one such region and is leading the way with 47% of employers using foreigners in their workforce.

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