New government figures show just 23,000 temporary skilled visa holders have arrived over the past five months. As job vacancies across the nation reach record highs, business leaders say almost every industry is under pressure.
Innes Willcox is the chief executive of Australian Industry group.
"It's very clear we just don't have the people here that we need to fill the jobs that we have, our economy is continuing to grow and while we've had closed borders it means jobs are going begging at the moment and that's not good both for employers and employees. Employers are finding it very hard to run their businesses and to keep up without the labour and the skills that they need."
As federal election campaigning ramps up, small businesses are pleading with both parties to provide more support.
Alexi Boyd, chief executive of the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, says a shortage of skilled labour means many businesses cannot expand or innovate.
"Small businesses are expected to accelerate, to grow the economy, to get back on their feet quickly, we simply can't do that without the workers and what's going to happen is small businesses will contract, they'll restrict their hours, they'll restrict the number of products and services they offer and so having the right level of immigration is a really important aspect to that."
