Does Australia has enough workers to build the enormous infrastructure ambitions of the renewable energy and data centre booms? A new piece of research says that, right now, it does not. And the problem traces all the way back to the training level.
The government-backed Powering Skills Organisation (PSO) has added another data point to an already-worrisome picture, one that suggests there aren’t enough people today with the skills, or inclination, to work on the nation’s big energy infrastructure.
Half of employers in the energy industry cannot fill vacancies and two-thirds say there are skills shortages, according to the PSO report.
“PSO previously estimated [in 2025] that an additional 42,000 energy trades workers would be required by 2030.”
This report however says that number is already out of date, and PSO is doing more work now to figure out what it might be in 2026.
