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Empty roles are costing Australian firms customers: what that tells job hunters in the UK

News · 2026-09-10 · 4 min read

Ask a UK recruiter about Australia and you will usually hear the same thing: employers there struggle to fill jobs. A new piece of workforce research now shows what that struggle actually costs them, and why so many Australian businesses have started building teams that stretch well beyond their own borders. If you are thinking about a career in Australia, the findings tell you a fair amount about which skills are in short supply.

A slow hire is a lost sale

An empty desk is easy to dismiss as a short-term nuisance. The employers surveyed suggest otherwise:

• about one in three said hiring problems had already lost them customers
• a similar share said the quality of their service had dropped
• nearly a third had missed project deadlines
• more than a quarter had lost or delayed contracts, and over a quarter had turned new work away

Before many of them looked abroad for help, key roles in Australia were staying open for 30 to 60 days at a time. That is long enough to lose a client or watch a project slip.

Why firms are hiring beyond Australia

Saving money used to be the main reason to set up an offshore team. Not any more. Skill shortages and rising wages now lead the list, each named by roughly four in ten employers, with the cost and risk of compliance not far behind. Nearly two-thirds of the businesses surveyed already have staff working for them from overseas, and two-thirds of the rest plan to invest more in that over the next two years. Very few are scaling back.

The work being sent abroad has changed too. Customer support is still the biggest area, but IT and engineering, data and analytics, finance, cybersecurity, legal and HR are now common. Employers say these overseas roles have become more specialised and more strategic over the past three years. The Philippines remains the most popular location, followed by India and Eastern Europe, with Vietnam and Malaysia growing.

What this means if you want to move

Offshore teams work from their own countries, so this trend is not a route to a visa in itself. It does, however, show you clearly where Australian employers feel the pinch. If businesses are prepared to look across the world for data, engineering, finance and cybersecurity skills, a candidate who can bring those skills and work on site in Australia has something to offer.

It is also worth remembering that plenty of hands-on work, from building sites to hospital wards to busy kitchens, simply cannot be done from another country. A long vacancy in a job like that has to be filled by someone who is there.

AI is raising the bar, not lowering it

You might expect AI to reduce the need for staff. The research points the other way. Two-thirds of employers already use AI in some form, and data analysts, AI engineers and automation specialists are the fastest-growing roles in their overseas teams. Employers want people who can use judgement, make sense of data and run AI tools properly. Training has not kept up, though: nearly a third offer their offshore staff no formal AI training at all.

For you, that means any experience with AI tools, automation or data work is worth putting front and centre on your CV, whatever your field.

Compliance knowledge is a selling point

Most businesses agree compliance demands have risen sharply over the past three years, yet only about a quarter feel truly confident about where they stand, and close to a third are unsure which standards even apply to their overseas arrangements. Data privacy, information security and modern slavery rules are all tightening. If you have worked under strict data protection or audit rules in the UK, mention it: it speaks directly to a worry Australian employers have.

The takeaway

Australian businesses are treating access to skilled people as something that shapes their growth, not just a recruitment task. For UK workers, the message is to know which of your skills are scarce and to show evidence of them. You can browse current roles on our jobs page and check visa options on the Department of Home Affairs visa list.

#australia #skills shortage #hiring #global teams #ai skills #jobs in australia