Tradies Wanted Until 2035: What Australia's 935,600-Worker Gap Means for South African Tradespeople

News · 2026-09-10 · 4 min read

Australian building sites are running out of people, and a fresh industry report has now put a number on how many. If nothing serious is done, the country could be short roughly 935,600 tradies and construction workers by 2035. Even if every reform the report recommends goes ahead, the gap would still sit above 84,000. If you hold a trade qualification and have been wondering whether to make the move, that is not a passing headline. It points to demand that should hold for years.

Too much work, not enough hands

This is not a short spike driven by one big project or a rush of hiring after the pandemic. According to Master Builders Australia, the real issue is structural: the system that trains new tradespeople cannot keep up with the volume of work coming. Around $242 billion of infrastructure spending is planned for the next five years. On top of that sits a decades-long move to net-zero energy. Homes, rail lines, roads and renewable projects all draw from one pool of qualified labour, and that pool keeps getting smaller.

Infrastructure Australia has run its own modelling and found a separate squeeze: a 300,000-worker gap is expected around 2027, just as the national pipeline of projects peaks. Demand is climbing while supply is falling, and migration is one of the few tools that can react fast.

The signs are already there

Most talk about the report centres on training more Australians. For tradies overseas, the migration figures are the part you can act on now:

The number of skilled visas granted to construction workers has tripled since 2019.
15,524 skilled construction visas were granted in the 2024–25 financial year, the most in any single year for a decade.
In this budget, the federal government set aside $85 million to speed up skills recognition for migrants who are already in Australia.
New apprentices going into housing construction can now get a $10,000 incentive, and Free TAFE has been widened. Both show a system trying to bring more people in.

Skills and Training Minister Andrew Giles has made it clear that the government sees more skilled migration as a main part of its answer, working next to local training, and not as a plan B.

Reading the report as a tradesperson

Three points are worth taking from it:

The demand runs long. A shortage forecast all the way to 2035 means steady work for carpenters, electricians, plumbers, civil construction crews and related trades. It is not a short window that shuts when one job ends.
Recognising existing skills is getting more attention. The report says faster recognition for qualified workers already in the country could free up more than 18,000 people almost straight away. That tells you Australia wants to shrink the distance between being qualified at home and being cleared to work there.
Policy is pointing the right way. Visa numbers have tripled, annual grants hit a record and new money is going into quicker skills recognition. Taken together, these settings make now a good time to start a skilled migration application.

Getting ready from home

If you passed a trade test in South Africa, keep your trade certificate (often called a red seal) and your proof of work experience together and in order. Trades are usually assessed again before you can work in Australia, often through Trades Recognition Australia, so complete and tidy records make that step easier. If a visa or employer asks for an English score, IELTS or PTE is the usual route.

Where this leaves you

Australia wants to build far more than its own workforce can deliver, and even the best-case reforms will not close the gap alone. That is why skilled migration for tradies is now treated as essential, not optional. If you have been looking at jobs in Australia for South Africans, steady demand, record visa numbers and government incentives make this one of the better times in years to look seriously at a move.

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