With multi-million mining dollar projects underway in Western Australia (WA), the state is on its way to another skill shortage, according to analysts. 

The latest CommSec’s State of the States report, released this week, shows that WA is the country’s fastest growing economy, much due to the high mining-related investment in the state. 

However, according to Peter Kenyon, professor of economy at Perth’s Curtin University, Western Australia is set to experience deep skills shortages, as projects move forward. 

“WA is doing well in terms of population growth and labour supply is increasing... we are likely to see a little bit of amelioration in the absolute skills shortage that we saw towards the end of the boom in 2008,” Kenyon said. The professor then added, “We will again see the job advertisements increasing for waiters and all sorts of staff in the windows of all the businesses around Perth. Not enough time has passed for us to build the skills base to get over that shortage.” 

Kenyon also believes that the government needs to look into policies of “long-term skills accumulation”.

WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) senior economist Dana Mason says she expects that “companies will expand their operations and start to hire more staff” in the state.