A note from Tim Boreham from the Australian.Budget offers plenty...

A note from Tim Boreham from the Australian.

Budget offers plenty of work to recruiter

Tim Boreham, Criterion From: The Australian May 12, 2011 12:00AM

GIVEN the get-to-work theme of the budget, it's a no-brainer that the country's biggest blue-collar recruitment and training house will benefit from the generous measures on training and expanding the workforce.

Skilled Group (SKE) $2.35

"It's a budget for skills and we have skilled in the name," Skilled chief Mick McMahon says.

But don't back up the truck, if you can find a qualified driver, just yet: the measures won't affect revenues for two to three years. And Skilled often can't oblige when a miner asks for 200 truck drivers.

"Unfilled orders are the biggest challenge in some sectors," says McMahon.

As a provider of apprentice training and indigenous work programs, Skilled also benefits on this high-margin training side, which is government-supported.

McMahon says the proposal to bolster skilled migration by 10 per cent is welcome, "but 16,000 more skilled migrants is just a drop in the ocean if you need half a million more workers".

Overall, Skilled accounts for about 10 per cent of the work-hire market, followed by the listed Programmed Group (7 per cent) and Chandler Macleod (5 per cent).

Skilled, which dominates the rock-kicking demographic, with 40 per cent of revenues sourced from Western Australia, had a buoyant month in anticipation of the budget measures, as well as an upbeat inaugural research note from Macquarie Equities.

The stock is not cheap, but is a long-term buy, as it's well equipped to surf the labour-hire wave in areas such as healthcare and transport and logistics.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/budget-offers-plenty-of-work-to-recruiter/story-e6frg8zx-1226054257873