RESPONDING TO THE TWO-SPEED ECONOMY
EVIDENCE FROM THE GOLD COAST
Author : Dr Alexandra ( Ali ) Bec Co-authors : Dr Safdar Khan , Alicia Liu , Ivanka Kovac , Ed Bartlett , Chris Marsh – City of Gold Coast
INTRODUCTION The pandemic had a substantial impact on the Gold Coast business community , exacerbated due to the city ’ s economic and business composition largely comprising of small businesses ( Flew and Kirkwood , 2021 ). The two-speed economy was prevalent among businesses , where some experienced a surge in growth , and others experienced a significant decline during the pandemic – typical of economies during significant structural change ( Perlich , 2013 ). This caused flow on impacts to local labour markets and businesses . During this time , local businesses identified several challenges including :
• under / over utilised workforce ;
• skill shortages ;
• workforce redundancies ;
• supply chain issues ;
• border closure ; and
• strained business development opportunities .
The conundrum of unemployment and excessive labour supply along with the skill shortage posed a serious labour market vulnerability in the economy ( Pizzinelli and Shibata , 2023 ). Due to the ripple effects on local labour markets and lack of management tools , many enterprises were in danger of going out of business . This can create economic and social challenges , such as income inequality and reduced opportunities for certain groups ( Showkat , Wani & Kaur , 2022 ). Additionally , skill shortages can result in skill mismatches due to the urgency and demand for labour ( Brunello & Wruuk , 2021 ). This required a strategy with a tool offering collaboration between different stakeholders leading to more effective solutions .
The City of Gold Coast Council ( the City ) responded swiftly with a range of small business relief programs , including a shared-workforce strategy . This strategy proposed that skill shortages can be largely addressed by matching the skills of the available workforce . Further , the strategy stresses that employment fluctuations can be minimised on a regular basis or as they arise exogenously due to economic fluctuations at the national or global level .
The shared workforce strategy proposed a tool called a business portal — designed to connect businesses to leverage and enhance workforce resources . The workforce-sharing initiative helps businesses maximise workforce resources by matching skills with surplus capacity with those needed to meet current shortages or scale up . In addition , this enhances the speed of finding jobs in the relevant sectors promoting workforce fluidity . For instance , if obtaining a job or being matched with one is immediate , then periods of unemployment would be brief , and the natural rate of unemployment would be close to zero .
VOL 16 NO 1 2023 24 www . edaustralia . com . au