In its 120-page report Building Human Capital, the business lobby group stressed the need for government action to ramp up the WA workforce, which it believes will need 400,000 additional workers over the next 10 years.

The report said the WA economy was operating at near full employment and recent Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed there were only 1.35 potential applicants for every job vacancy in WA in the 2007 September quarter.

CCI chief executive John Langoulant said there was no time to lose, with the state not having the workforce needed to service the $100 billion investment in the pipeline for WA.

“If we don’t have people to fill the jobs, we can’t expect to sustain this boom into the future,” Langoulant said.

“”To ensure the ongoing success and prosperity of our small, medium and large businesses, it is imperative employers have access to a reliable, flexible and well-trained workforce on the scale necessary for growth.”

Langoulant said there were simply not enough people to fill the holes and CCI forecasts showed this would only get worse in the future.

To stem the state’s labour shortage problem, the report has proposed an action strategy which includes measures to lift immigration, widening of skill categories for temporary migrant work visas, expanding education and training, and introducing work incentives such as tax cuts and child care assistance.

CCI stressed the need to simplify the 457 visa program which allowed skilled migrants to work in Australia temporarily and to extend the scheme to include semi-skilled workers from a wider range of professions.

The report also targeted the ageing population as a major issue, with immigration levels and rising birth rates not keeping pace with retirements.

CCI proposed higher participation from older workers or those close to retirement age was required to deal with this issue.