The study, by Perth's Edith Cowan University, found skilled workers were reluctant to trade their east coast lifestyles for well-paid work in the WA resources sector.
That was despite cash incentives offered by the federal government.
The report concludes, in the short term, small numbers of skilled overseas workers will still be needed to help WA employers deliver projects on time.
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Phillippa Carisbrooke reports.
The resources boom has given rise to a greater demand for skilled workers in Western Australia.
But resource companies say filling the positions with local workers is proving to be a difficult battle.
Researchers at Perth's Edith Cowan University surveyed 15 resource companies, who reported workers on the East Coast were telling them they did not want to relocate.
The workers cited the distance from family and friends and, in the case of fly-in-fly-out* jobs, the long hours and lack of work-life balance.
The workers also viewed the extreme climate and desert conditions at many of the resource projects as unattractive.
Employers reported many of the workers had unrealistic expectations about what they might earn on resource projects.
And the report's author, Dr Susanne Bahn, says concerns about the levels of tax paid on high salaries also discouraged East Coast workers from making the move.
"They cited high cost of living, but we did a cost-benefit analysis for those working in resources and found that, because they get paid so well, actually they have 30 per cent residual income after all the living expenses and the tax. And so, actually, they have money to play with. They also said Perth doesn't have all the cultural stuff that Sydney and Melbourne have, hasn't got the theme parks, things like that. So maybe they haven't researched it very well. Maybe we haven't sold ourselves that well."
The study also looked at the ability of Australian university graduates to fill skilled roles and found they lacked the work experience.
Dr Bahn says many new graduates are simply not ready for work.
"Higher-education institutions, such as the universities, might need to consider how they deliver their training, in that we give our graduates a little bit more workplace training within their courses. But that's going to need support from governments, state and federal, to try and offset some of the costs."
The report concluded, in the short term, resources companies were left with little alternative other than to plug recruitment gaps with skilled migrant workers.
The Australian Mines and Metals Association, which advocates on behalf of the resources industry and associated employer groups, helped fund the study.
Executive Director Minna Knight says the study confirms the important role overseas skilled workers play in ensuring projects are built on time and to budget.
She says the sector now needs the federal government to speed up the approval process for 457 visa applications and Enterprise Migration Agreements.
"The industry is concerned that the incorrect attention that has been placed on the skilled-migration program has resulted in a slowdown of some of these agreements being approved. So what we're saying is that this report demonstrates that, although it's a small part of addressing the skilled shortage, it's a very important part and, therefore, some attention should be paid to ensuring that these labour agreements, skilled visas and enterprise-migration-agreement approval processes are sped up so that employers have adequate access to workers."
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union accepts there are shortages of workers in the engineering and mine-management sectors.
But it disputes there is a shortage of trade workers and semi-skilled workers available locally.
CFMEU National Construction Division Secretary Dave Noonan says employers have sought to fool the public with tales of a shortage of Australian workers.
"The reality is that the skills shortage, so-called skills shortage, in the blue-collar area of resource construction is mainly a fabrication of companies who simply want to have large numbers of workers under guest-labor arrangements because they're inherently vulnerable, will do what they are told by management and won't join a union or require decent safety and living standards like local workers will. So I think Australians shouldn't be conned by any number of academic studies or self-serving statements by groups like the Australian Mining and Metals Association."
Ms Knight says, because it can cost up to $65,000 to bring a foreign worker to Australia on a 457 visa, employers will always look to fill a role locally first.
She talks of human-resource departments in the state that, upon hearing of potential job cuts on the East Coast, rush to contact the skilled workers concerned.
But she says they find the workers are unwilling to pursue job opportunities interstate.
Ms Knight says some trade unions have been mischievous in their approach to the issue.
She alleges they have put out misinformation about the need for, and treatment of, overseas workers.
"It's commonly said by some unions that workers are going to be exploited, particularly those coming from overseas. The clear facts are that foreign workers have to be paid at the same rates that Australian workers are paid. And that's why it actually costs more to bring foreign workers in than Australian workers, and, therefore, from a commercial perspective, employers in the resource industry will only do that if they absolutely have to and because they cannot bring in workers from any other parts of Australia."
Mr Noonan insists bringing in overseas workers should be a last resort.
"We are constantly approached by workers who have the requisite skills, experience, and, in fact, have experience in working fly-in-fly-out on large resource projects, and they can't even get a call back from employers. So, when we've seen those people given an opportunity, when it's clear that all of the local labor that is available has been soaked up, that's when we ought to be looking for guest-labor situations, and not before."
