Fiji should establish bilateral labour agreements with countries such as India and Bangladesh to ensure safe and efficient recruitment systems as businesses continue facing worker shortages.
This was highlighted by Fiji Commerce & Employers Federation Chief Executive Officer Edward Bernard.
Bernard says Fiji was becoming a labour-receiving country and while the country already had systems in place to send workers to Australia and New Zealand, similar arrangements should now be developed for bringing workers into Fiji.
He says businesses still needed foreign labour to continue operating while long-term labour market issues were being addressed.
Bernard says findings from the recently launched National Skills Gap Assessment (NSGA) Survey identifies around 95 jobs that employers were struggling to fill with local workers, highlighting a growing skills shortage across the country.
The survey also found that the proportion of foreign workers in Fiji had increased by 79 percent since 2022 compared to the growth of local employment.
According to the Fiji Commerce & Employers Federation, Bangladesh remained the largest source market for foreign workers in Fiji, followed by India adding within the Pacific region, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Tonga made up the largest share of regional foreign workers.
Bernard says supply-side issues in the labour market would take time to fix and employers were also waiting on decisions regarding access to their full one percent FNU levy.
He says as companies continued transitioning towards digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, foreign labour remained the only immediate option available for many employers.
Bernard also highlights delays in work permit processing by the Ministry of Immigration, saying approvals could sometimes take up to six months, creating additional pressure for employers trying to fill urgent vacancies.
He also suggests several short-term measures to help reduce labour shortages, including allowing qualified spouses of expatriates to work, permitting regional students to work limited hours and enabling all Fijians registered under NEC to take up temporary employment opportunities.
