Australia’s Reserve Bank Governor has voiced concerns about the country’s closed international borders and the impact this is having on the local labour market.

The governor’s concerns centre around the fact that Australia cannot “tap global labour markets”, meaning there are increasing worker shortages in a number of sectors.

This is starting to result in pockets of wage increases in the economy, which is worrying business owners.

The governor says prior to the pandemic “if there was very strong demand for workers with a particular skill, the wage didn’t really move very much.. because you could go and get workers overseas.”

However, despite the lack of global talent, employers are still broadly trying to avoid any wage growth.

The governor says that “even in those pockets where firms are finding it hardest to hire workers… wage increases are mostly modest.”