Master Builders Australia has told a federal parliamentary inquiry the construction industry is 141,000 workers short of current demand, faces a projected shortfall of 935,600 workers by 2035, and has only about 7,040 skilled visa holders working in core construction trade occupations across the country. The evidence was given to the Inquiry into the value of skilled migration to Australia on 18 September 2026.
The figures come from the opening statement delivered by Master Builders Australia National Director of Policy and Legal Melissa Byrne, published by the industry body. It’s a single-source document putting one industry association’s case to a committee of federal parliament, and the numbers in it are Master Builders’ own.
Byrne didn’t soften the framing. “Australia’s construction industry is facing a workforce crisis that is structural, not cyclical,” she told the committee.
More apprentices are walking than finishing
The training pipeline is the part that should worry anyone running a put-on-and-train business model. Apprenticeship commencements fell 3.9 per cent between 2024 and 2025. There are still over 100,000 construction apprentices in training, but that’s a 5.7 per cent drop in a single year.
Completions actually improved, up 18 per cent over the year to March 2026. That’s the good news, and it comes with a sting attached: on Byrne’s account, “more are quitting during their apprenticeship than completing”.
There’s no spare labour sitting around to plug the gap either. “At the same time, our workforce is ageing and unemployment sits at around 4 per cent, meaning there is no latent domestic pool to draw on,” Byrne said.
Set that against the National Housing Accord commitment of 1.2 million homes. “These numbers cannot be reconciled with current demand for building and construction work or domestic training trajectories,” she told the inquiry.
The four-year problem
Here’s the bit that matters if you’re the one signing the apprentice’s paperwork. A first-year you put on this month is not a chippy on a crew this month, or next year.
“Domestic reform is essential, but even under optimistic assumptions, it takes two to four years before a new apprentice can become a qualified tradesperson,” Byrne said.
That’s the arithmetic behind the association’s pitch for migration as a stopgap rather than a substitute. “We need a working skilled migration pathway now that works as a bridge, as it does in other countries, while domestic apprenticeship reforms come online,” she told the committee.
On the current numbers, that bridge is a plank. About 7,040 skilled visa holders were working in core construction trade occupations nationally as of September 2025, against a stated 141,000-worker hole. “That is a number wholly inconsistent with the scale of this challenge,” Byrne said.
18,400 qualified people already here
The most interesting figure in the statement isn’t about bringing anyone in. It’s about the tradespeople who already landed.
Master Builders estimates 18,400 permanent migrants living in Australia hold building and construction qualifications but are working below their skill level, “blocked by slow, costly, and fragmented skills recognition and licensing arrangements”. The association puts the upside of fixing that at roughly 2.4 homes per skilled migrant, or around 40,000 additional homes a year.
Anyone who has moved a licence between states knows why that logjam exists. Trade licensing in Australia is run by the states and territories, not Canberra, and licensing requirements vary by state: what a regulator will accept as evidence of competency differs depending on which side of a border the job sits. For someone who trained overseas, that’s a paperwork exercise stacked on top of a paperwork exercise, and it runs while they’re paying rent.
”It does not reflect how construction works”
Byrne’s argument to the committee is that the visa system was built for a different kind of employer.
“While the migration system was not designed to exclude construction its framework has evolved around the needs of larger, office-based employers with long planning horizons and specialist HR capacity,” she said.
And then the line that will land with anyone running a crew of six out of a ute.
“It does not reflect how construction works: 98 per cent are small businesses, project-based labour demand, state-specific licensing, and schedules that cannot wait months for visa processing.”
That’s the practical mismatch. A builder needs a form worker when the slab is booked, not when a processing queue clears. Most outfits in this industry have no HR department to chase a nomination, no in-house migration agent, and no ability to carry a vacancy for a quarter while a decision sits somewhere.
The five asks
Master Builders put a package in front of the committee:
- A dedicated Construction Skills Pathway visa
- Expansion of the Pacific-Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) Scheme to include non-licensed trades
- An international apprenticeship pathway
- Reform of the Skilling Australia Fund levy
- A National Skills Activation Program to bring the 18,400 under-utilised migrants already here into the workforce
“Australia cannot meet its housing, infrastructure, or productivity objectives without a better-functioning migration system,” Byrne said. “The reforms we are proposing are practical, evidence-based, and deliverable.”
What to watch
None of the five asks is government policy yet. They’re submissions to an inquiry, and inquiries report before anything changes.
The one worth tracking hardest is the skills recognition piece, because it needs no new visa class and no new arrivals. It needs state licensing bodies and assessing authorities to speed up and stop duplicating each other. If you’ve got a qualified bricklayer or wall-and-floor tiler on your books doing labouring rates because their overseas ticket won’t convert, that’s the 18,400 in one person.
For everyone else, the number to keep an eye on is commencements. Down 3.9 per cent in a year, with a quit rate outrunning the completion rate, is the figure that decides whether there’s anyone to hand the tools to in 2030.
Frequently asked questions
How big is the construction worker shortage in Australia?
Master Builders Australia told a federal inquiry the industry is 141,000 workers short of current demand, with a projected shortfall of 935,600 workers by 2035.
How many skilled migrants work in core construction trades?
About 7,040 skilled visa holders were working in core construction trade occupations nationally as of September 2025, according to Master Builders Australia.
Why aren’t qualified migrants already in Australia working in construction?
Master Builders estimates 18,400 permanent migrants with construction qualifications are working below their skill level, blocked by slow, costly and fragmented skills recognition and licensing arrangements.
What is Master Builders Australia asking for?
It put five proposals to the inquiry: a dedicated Construction Skills Pathway visa, expanding the PALM Scheme to non-licensed trades, an international apprenticeship pathway, reform of the Skilling Australia Fund levy, and a National Skills Activation Program.
Sourced from Master Builders Australia. Original article.
