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Australia – Skills shortages pushing talent and high-growth companies offshore

12 October 2015

Sydney’s “lockout laws” are accelerating the brain drain of Australian’s skilled technology workers, according to Matt Barrie, CEO of Freelancer.com, reports brw.com.au.

Mr Barrie said: “I don’t know what they’re trying to do, bring back prohibition or something, but they’re turning the city into a very bad place to live for a young person. They’ve shut down the entertainment precinct for the city, so you’ve got these young Gen Y people wanting to go out for some fun so they do to Silicon Valley or London or wherever and that is accelerating massively.”

Young Australians have historically looked abroad for work and life experience; and the lockout laws, which restrict access to licensed premises after a certain time of night, are just one factor. 

But with a lot of start-ups and growth-stage technology companies struggling to source talent, it has become a critical problem.

Talent entrepreneurs identify three broad reasons growth companies head overseas: access to capital, access to talent, and access to customers.

For most growth companies, access to talent was the primary reason they move overseas or open significant offshore offices. Early-stage start-ups find recruitment a challenge as well, but the problem is amplified for growth companies that often hire dozens of staff at a time.

Mr Barrie stated that many people in Silicon Valley regard Australia as a “backwater” and this is getting worse not better. He recently had a top recruitment firm in Silicon Valley decline to take on Freelancer as a client.

“You can tap into a few people from the UK who want to come to Australia because culturally it’s very similar and the weather’s a lot better, but try to get anyone out from Silicon Valley to Australia and you’ve got absolute [no] chance.”

“The recruiter told me that Australia is a backwater now and people won’t even move for the lifestyle choice. The problem is it’s two moves for anyone of any stature because it’s one move to leave the Valley and another move to get back and they’re worried about the move back and trying to reintegrate into networks,” he explained.