Tamworth Business Chamber and the junior chamber call for focus on attracting staff

The city's growth needs to be sustained, Tamworth Business Chamber president Steph Cameron said.

"We need businesses to be able to attract and retain good staff, we need regional educational opportunities to be made available and that includes TAFE," she said.

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Mrs Cameron said if good staff can't be attracted to the regions, businesses will start to look elsewhere.

"Now that people can work remotely, they're expecting city wages to be paid in the country and that drives competition," she said.

"Because it's such a tight market at the moment, highly skilled people can demand a really good wage, and it's hard to compete with that."

Industries hardest hit by staff shortages include the professional services industry - accountants, surveyors, engineers, scientists, solicitors, Mrs Cameron said.

In regional areas 21 per cent of employers cited their location as a barrier in May, the National Skills Commission (NSC) found.

The NSC found recruitment rates were only higher by two per cent outside of capital cities.

The other most common reasons employers give to explain hiring difficulties include not enough applicants, a lack of suitable applicants, a lack of technical skills or a lack of experience.

Tamworth Junior Business Chamber chair Shonia Poole became passionate about increasing the knowledge of opportunities in regional areas for young professionals after not seeing what all the fuss was about in the big smoke.

"I took the traditional pathway, I moved to the city, and I detested it," she said.

"I hated working in that urban practice, which is when I moved back to regional.

"I think it's really important to highlight the lifestyle differences between working in urban and regional practice, because it's extraordinary."

But it's important that the infrastructure is there to support people when they get a gig in the regions, she said.

"It's not that people don't want to move here, it's that there's no houses for them to move into so then they can't take the positions," she said.

"I think it's interesting to say there's a lot of jobs in the market, but there's also no houses for people to move into to take those jobs.

"I think it's a broader issue."

The junior chamber has a lot of work planned to get young people keen for their future careers.

It includes a careers program to engage high school students with industry, a progressive dinner, trivia night, and the opportunity to speak with professionals in the areas that they're interested in.

"Not only will it give students the ability to speak with future employers, and give them hopefully work experience, opportunities and whatnot," she said.

"There's also an opportunity for school based traineeships, apprenticeships.

"But it'll also give employers an opportunity to reach into a younger market."

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