That's one of the big challenges on the Mid North Coast - and all roads led to Kempsey for a meeting to thrash out the hurdles for local businesses.

Regional Development Australia Mid North Coast (RDAMNC) and the Local Jobs Program (LJP) invited Macleay district employers to participate in a Workforce Development Forum.

"The purpose of the forum was to bring together employers from across the region to take part in solution-based discussions around the impacts and gaps in our local workforce," RDAMNC chief executive officer Kerry Grace said.

"There are several issues confronting employers across the Mid North Coast, including a lack of skilled workers and access to local training to develop specialised skills, and a poor response to advertised positions in some industries.

"We wanted to bring employers together face to face and dig deep into our collective experience and creativity to identify potential problems and create innovative solutions."

The forum was held at the Kempsey Macleay RSL and featured brief presentations from various government, employer and training services followed by a constructive group discussion and ideas generating session facilitated by Kerry.

Participants represented a range of local businesses and organisations across the retail, hospitality, manufacturing, and care sectors, most of which are struggling to find enough staff.

The group discussed gaps in their workforce, brainstormed potential solutions, and nominated the kind of support they need.

The Local Jobs Program (LJP) is a Federally funded initiative to support Australia's economic recovery from COVID-19 at the local level, with a focus on creating employment opportunities, meeting local employer demands and better skilling local job seekers.

"One of the key priorities for the Local Jobs Program for the Mid North Coast region is to support small and microbusinesses to take on new employees," Janine Culnane, employment facilitator for the program, said.

"These Workforce Development Forums have been a wonderful opportunity to connect with employers across the region who have been doing it tough over the last 18 months and join forces to come up with solutions that really make a difference.

"The next step for us is to collate what we have learned from employers in the region, which will then inform our next steps to provide solutions and support to help address the shortfalls in the Mid North Coast workforce."

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