Sydney: A Sydney butcher offering a lucrative annual salary of AUD$130,000 (approximately ₹73 lakh) is struggling to hire a qualified candidate, despite receiving over 140 applications. Notably, none of the applicants are from Australia.

The position, advertised by 66-year-old Clayton Wright, owner of Clover Valley Meat Company and Wrights The Butchers in Alexandria, has sparked concern over a growing skills shortage in the country’s trade sector, as reported in news.com.au.

Wright, who has been investing around $1,100 a month to advertise the opening on job search site Seek, says the lack of local interest reflects a deeper issue within Australia's vocational workforce.

“It’s not a matter of money,” Wright said. “We have [had a decades-long] drain on people that have not picked up the trade, this is what we’re suffering now.”

Applicants have poured in from around the world — including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria and South America — but Wright says their qualifications often fall short.

“We’ve had 140 applications and not one was from Australia,” he said. “They were from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, South America.”

Most applicants, he claims, are seeking entry into Australia via sponsorship, but are lacking in essential skills, experience, or even basic English proficiency.

“They all want a sponsorship,” Wright noted. “This happened years ago in the chef industry, where chef was an easy entry into Australia so all these people came and did a chef’s course. The problem is that you have no butchers, so if you bring people in from overseas you have no one to train them.”

Aside from a handful with halal slaughter experience, many had “virtually no qualifications at all” and “most were battling to speak English,” he added.

Wright's situation isn't isolated. Business NSW, a prominent industry group, says similar stories are being reported across the region.