Between 29 November to 9 December 2022, CA ANZ conducted an online survey of 378 Australian members, ranging from small to large employers, on occupation shortages, skills needs, workforce demand, recruitment challenges and the use of employer sponsored visa programs.

The survey results will help CA ANZ advocate and engage with the Australian Government on the skills and workforce needs of our members and the profession.

Key findings from our 2022 Australian member skills and recruitment challenges survey:

• Shortages were identified by the majority of members who provided input on the ANZSCO occupations Taxation Accountant (88%), External Auditor (86%), General Accountant (80%), Management Accountant (65%), Corporate Treasurer (60%), Finance Manager (60%), and Internal Auditor (52%).
• A total of 669 job vacancies were found, including 81 auditor vacancies and 588 non-audit vacancies, with the highest number of vacant roles for Taxation Accountants (338), General Accountants (209) and External Auditors (79).
• The greatest number of shortages were identified in regional areas across all occupations and states (45%), followed by metro areas (28%), with 23% in both locations.
• The majority of respondents expect workforce demand to increase over the next five years for External Auditors (72%), Taxation Accountants (64%), Management Accountants (55%) and General Accountants (54%).
• A majority of respondents (82%) have not used the employer sponsored visa program in the past 12 months, and only 35% intend to use it in the future.
• Smaller organisations with less than 20 employees are less likely to have used the employer sponsored visa program in the past 12 months, with only 5% indicating they have.
• For those who have used the employer sponsored visa program, only 18% have used it for the Taxation Accountant role, despite nearly 9 in 10 respondents indicating the role is in shortage.
• Whilst employers received a high number of applications for vacant roles, they are struggled to fill the roles as only a small number of applicants had the qualifications, skills and experience required to do the job.

Further details are provided in our downloadable survey results summary.

CA ANZ would like to thank the Australian members who participated in this survey, including those on our Member Insights Panel.

We have used your valuable feedback in the first instance to support our response to Jobs and Skills Australia’s 2023 Skills Priority List Stakeholder Survey on 6 January 2023.

The survey data is a key input that may influence the government's policy decisions on skills and workforce issues in areas such as migration settings, education, training and employer incentives.

To support our survey submission we also provided Jobs and Skills Australia with a report on the shortage of and demand for accounting, audit and financial professionals, and the valuable contribution these professions make, which can be downloaded below.