As office workers steadily return to Sydney's CBD, Renee Baltov's barbershop in Martin Place is finally seeing a boom in customers.
But like many small business owners around Australia, Ms Baltov is faced with ongoing staff shortages and fears her dreams of expansion — she has a second shop nearby and is considering opening a third — may have to be put on hold.
"Currently we employ 15 people, which is half of what we used to employ before the pandemic," she says.
"I've had a job ad running consistently for three years and I've had hardly any applicants."
I've had a job ad running consistently for three years and I've had hardly any applicants.Renee Baltov, Business owner
Since opening her first Barberhood store in 2015, Ms Baltov has sponsored 11 workers from overseas on temporary skill shortage visas (subclass 482) to help fill the gap.
"We want to grow Australian talent and we employ Australian apprentices, but also overseas staff bring something different to our business as well, so it's great to have a mix of both Australian talent and overseas talent."
Ms Baltov says she lost five skilled workers last year, who returned overseas due to Australia's prolonged border closure and lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Renee Baltov at one of her Sydney barbershops.
New figures from the Department of Home Affairs showed just 23,000 Temporary Skill Shortage visa holders have arrived in Australia over the past five months. There are more than 24,000 people who hold visas in that category but remain offshore.
"I knew there would be a slow take-up of people coming back to Australia, but I didn't expect it to be this slow. Right now I'm hiring for three positions and we've had no Australians apply and no migrant workers apply either, so it's been pretty tough," Ms Baltov says.
As job vacancies across the nation reach record highs — there were 423,500 unfilled positions according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, an increase of 6.9 per cent since November — business leaders are sounding the alarm.
Australian Industry Group CEO Innes Willox says almost every industry is under pressure.
"It's very clear we just don't have the people here that we need to fill the jobs that we have," he says.
"Our economy is continuing to grow and while we've had closed borders it means jobs are going begging at the moment.
"Employers are finding it very hard to run their businesses and to keep up without the labour and the skills that they need."
Mr Willox is backing calls for a simpler and speedier skilled visa application process to help ease worker shortages.
"We need to find a way to streamline that process and not make it so expensive as well."
"We've got to think of migration and training of locals together, but migration is a quicker fix and it does have spillover benefits for the economy as a whole."
As federal election campaigning ramps up, small businesses are pleading with both major parties to provide more support and prioritise immigration reform.
Alexi Boyd, CEO of the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, says a shortage of skilled labour means many businesses can not expand or innovate.
There are calls for positions such as service station convenience store workers to be included on the skilled workers list. Source: AAP
"What's going to happen is small businesses will contract, they'll restrict their hours and they'll restrict the number of products and services they offer."
Ms Boyd says the government's skilled occupation list should be urgently expanded to include more general occupations such as convenience store and petrol station workers, who are also in short supply.
Ben Watt, a migration lawyer for Visa Envoy, says Australia is now competing with many other countries across the world for international visitors and workers.
He says more incentives are needed to attract foreign workers, such as the creation of more pathways to permanent residency through employer-sponsored visas.
"I think there is a bit of a bad rap with Australia at the moment in cohorts of people who are looking at coming on temporary visas, such as the working holiday visas but especially the student visas," he says.
"There's been a bit of talk within these communities that if you come here and you're in Sydney or a capital city...you will get a job but you won't be able to stay [permanently].
The government has set a permanent migration cap of 160,000 places for 2022-23.
A spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs said: "skilled visas will comprise around two-thirds of the total migration program at 109,900 places, and this increase in the overall size of the program will facilitate a substantial reduction in applications currently with the Department".
"Skilled occupation lists will be updated in early 2022-23 to reflect changes in Australia’s labour market, based on advice from the National Skills Commission. The Temporary Skills Shortage (TSS) visa is underpinned by these targeted occupation lists that are responsive to genuine needs and have a sharper labour market focus."
A spokesperson for the Federal Opposition said Labor would be announcing its new migration policy 'soon'.
Shadow Home Affairs Minister Kristina Keneally said historically, temporary migrants were often able to apply for permanent status but she was concerned that's no longer the case.
"Over the past nine years the Liberals have turned Australia’s successful model of permanent migration on its head," she said.
"The re-opening of the borders gives Australia an opportunity to reduce reliance on temporary migration, support permanent migration and invest in skills and jobs for Australians."
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