Engineering Recruitment, Engineers Recruitment, Engineering Employment, Engineering Professionals, Engineering Jobs, WA, Australia

12 May 2011

Responding to complaints from business about skills shortages, the government has increased its permanent migration target for the 2011-12 financial year to 185,000.

The government estimates that increasing the skilled migration target level will result in net overseas migration – a measure that includes those on student and short-term 457 work visas – of 185,800, “significantly” below the peak of 315,700, in the year to December 2008. The increased migration intake is expected to result in $1.11 billion in net additional revenue over the next four years. A number of business groups had called for an increase in the migration program to between 180,000 and 190,000 people, citing difficulties in obtaining staff particularly in sectors linked to mining. The government estimates that there may be at least 30,000 construction jobs on new resources projects every year until 2015. In response, a system of enterprise migration agreements will also be introduced for resources projects worth more than $2 billion and with peak workforces of 1500. This would allow the companies involved to “gain prompt access to overseas labour” during the construction phase and where there were “genuine” skills shortages locally.

Excerpt from: The Australian Financial Review (www.afr.com), 11 May 2011