Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association, 22 May 2025 – Skilled labour shortages are a growing concern worldwide, affecting the construction and healthcare industries. As economies evolve and technology advances, the demand for specialised skills often outpaces the supply, leading to gaps in productivity and slowing development progress. Businesses struggle to find qualified workers, which can result in delays, increased costs, and reduced competitiveness.
In Fiji, this challenge is particularly pressing.
The country has been experiencing a significant loss of skilled workers to overseas opportunities, especially in sectors like tourism, construction, and manufacturing – a challenge that was brought to the Government’s attention almost immediately after reopening post-COVID.
Many Fijians are drawn to employment programs in Australia and New Zealand, such as the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) Scheme, which has contributed to skill shortages across various industries. Formal and informal demand for aged-care workers globally has also exacerbated the outflow of skilled and non-skilled workers.
This exodus has led to rising wages, sometimes outpacing inflation and productivity improvements, making it harder for businesses to sustain growth.
Into this mix, we constantly hear calls for inflation to be reversed as we watch it rise, sometimes slower but rising nonetheless, given the current conditions. Reversing inflation requires the right combination of economic policies and market conditions.
Fiji relies heavily on outside market conditions, and our often-changing policies defeat our economic strategies, so calls to stop inflation are probably futile.
To address the skill gaps, it has been recommended that Fiji focus on workforce development strategies, including increasing female participation in the labour force and reforming education to align with industry needs.
However, the challenge remains in balancing economic opportunities abroad with the need for a strong domestic workforce.
Fiji’s tourism industry has been grappling with skilled labour shortages to mitigate these challenges by implemented several strategies that have included collaborating with higher educational and TVET institutions, ramping up in-house training programs, recognising the potential of engaging with our youth and significantly increasing retention strategies. It has also advocated strongly for improved legislative and policy changes that support workforce development, and to make it easier to attract and retain skilled labour.
However, 3 years on from identifying that Fiji’s skill gaps were posing a challenge for development, the most visible and newsworthy activity from Government on the matter is the consistent support for labour schemes to send our workers overseas.
At this point in time, around 6,000 workers have been identified and confirmed for these supported programs who await further confirmation of being matched with an overseas-based employer before they finally depart. While they wait, the 6,000 identified workers cannot be employed here for some reason.
We know this because workers who have resigned have advised us of this requirement from the Ministry of Employment.
Australia recognises their need for skilled workers and has initiated policies that can turn around a skilled work permit for a talented local from Fiji within 4 months, who can take his family with him and offer him permanent residency within 2 years. That they can support a Cert 3 level training for Aged Care and Early Childhood workers now is reinforcing their commitment to open up more work opportunities for Pacific Island workers.
We get why Fiji would support these initiatives, but what is the country going to do about taking care of its own National Development Plan and its strategic intent to progress its economy by 5% annually if it simply opened its doors to support outward migration, but closed them for inward skilled migration?
Now, if there was just as much enthusiasm to address the brain drain here by making the importation of skills into the country a far simpler process than the current convoluted one that it is – we might not be as concerned as we currently are with budgeting far more than we should be for training (because the already demanded employers training levy is being stolen from under our noses), or that we are never going to be able to lift our productivity and growth to the levels required to achieve that now elusive 5% annual national economic growth we are all supposed to be working so diligently towards.
Many are witnessing a decline in confidence as progress in various sectors stalls when regulatory bodies struggle to enforce, control, or manage non-compliance. Instead of addressing the core issues, processes are often reversed, or excessive paperwork is introduced—deliberately slowing things down in an attempt to exert better control, perhaps.
Unfortunately, this approach penalises the majority who are compliant, as it seems easier to impose frustrating bureaucratic hurdles on everyone rather than directly tackling the few who fail to adhere to regulations.
The implementation of a series of changes—some structural, others procedural—has left many employers wondering whether they will be able to start or complete projects, progress their construction or development plans, or achieve the required productivity they need to achieve business growth.
Every industry looking to grow, develop, improve productivity, compete more fiercely or simply open up new business models is looking for specific skills that, despite months and often years of advertising, confirms that they must import that skill.
Tourism is a people-first industry. We require a dynamic and adaptable workforce, and until our domestic talent pool catches up with growing demand, we rely on skilled expatriate professionals to fill those gaps, particularly in specialised management, culinary, engineering and technical roles. Even if only on short-term stints that allow on-the-job training to pass on specific skills.
This is not about undermining local employment; in fact, it’s quite the opposite. Without access to the right skills at the right time, our operations stall, and opportunities for local job creation diminish.
In 2024, we welcomed over 1 million visitors, bringing in more than $2.367 billion in earnings, according to the Bureau of Statistics. This number is only expected to grow in 2025, especially with increased connectivity and strong demand from our key markets.
With over 118,000 people employed directly and indirectly in tourism—roughly 1 in 4 Fijians—any delays or inefficiencies in all areas that demand work permits, licensing, approvals and certifications have a ripple effect across the entire economy.
The more revenue we generate, the higher the ripple effects throughout the economy and therefore the higher taxes Government eventually collects.
Every delay resulting from a government agency challenge – that range from unanswered emails and phone calls, long waits for reports, staff not turning up for paid for and confirmed inspections, licenses not issued or digital portals not responding because they crashed or could not upload the irrational number of documents demanded without the back-end IT infrastructure support – all translates to compromised service, revenue loss, and added pressure on local staff already stretched thin.
Which is why we fully understand the pain and frustration of the constantly failing bus card system – the people designing it are not the people who must depend on and use the bus cards daily.
We supported and welcomed the push toward digital transformation, but even with its introduction, the waiting time for most of our regulatory-required processes has remained.
We pay the 1% FNU levy despite not seeing over 90% of it, and continue the struggle with the lack of industry-ready graduates.
It is widely known through FRCS, FNPF, RBF, and almost every other government agency that the vast majority of businesses comply with workplace regulations, contribute to medical schemes, and meet legal and tax obligations. But despite 80% of people following the rules, they often face the same restrictions as the 20% who don’t, creating a system where compliance is punished alongside negligence.
The broader issue here is coordination. We need policy changes that are informed by data and designed in consultation with the industries they impact. It is not enough to notify employers of new rules via website updates, passed on internal circulars or Facebook posts that provide very little time to adjust. Real stakeholder engagement means understanding how each decision affects operations on the ground—and giving us a seat at the table before the ink dries on new procedures.
Much like the bus card systems that fail to take into context the people who use it most to get to school, work and to hospitals, who were probably not engaged in its design or process.
No one is asking for special treatment.
Just transparency and good governance, while some basic common sense would also help tremendously.
At the end of the day, we need systems that are reliable, predictable, and fit for purpose, and processes that make sense.
That respects the law rather than reinterpreting it, and the reality of business needs.
We have always been ready to work together to achieve that, but this requires some good listening skills, some humility to enable flexibility, and a shared commitment to really making Fiji’s economy stronger.
Fantasha Lockington – CEO, FHTA (Published in the Fiji Times on 22 May 2025)
