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

KPMG’s Skilled Migration Survey of 300 Australian businesses in July and August 2011and confirms that Australia is experiencing a skills shortage increase of about 10% over the past 12 months.

21 October 2011

Over the past 3 years, KPMG has engaged with their clients and the wider Australian business community to understand the challenges they are facing in maintaining a productive and skilled labour force, and how they go about filling shortages. Its 2011 Skilled Migration Survey confirms that Australia is in the midst of an increasing skills shortage and as a general measure across a number of variables, furthermore the shortage appears to have increased about 10% over the past 12 months.

The report is developed around three main interest areas, and presents the following key findings:

A national portrait of skilled migration

• 36% of respondents have increased their skilled migration intake in the past 12 months, with the largest increases being in Western Australia and New South Wales.
• In New South Wales the proportion of employers reporting an increase in hires using 457 visas more than doubled from 2010 figures.
• Nearly 80% of respondents had recruited 20 or fewer workers in the past year using 457 visas, suggesting most employing organisations continued to use this temporary work visa scheme quite selectively.

The steady growth of a skills decline

• 61% of respondents reported experiencing skills shortages during the past 12 months compared with the 51% that disclosed shortages in 2010.
• A shortage of accountants and other finance professions is becoming more pronounced, as is a shortage of IT specialists and senior executives with experience in management planning and policy.
• Notable - nearly a third of respondents said the skills they were seeking were not included on DIAC’s occupation skills list.

Navigating future scarcities

• More than 28% of respondent businesses reported that they were already feeling the effects of the departure of baby boomers from the workforce.
• 43% expected to become more reliant on 457 visa holders to fill skilled vacancies over the next 5 years, an increase of 11% from 2010.
• Nearly two thirds of respondents thought the Australian government could more effectively leverage its skilled migration programme to support Australia’s population growth.

The 457 visa scheme is plugging an ever-widening hole, as Australian companies look for more creative ways to grow and sustain their workforce. The 2011 survey has found that despite some deterioration in economic conditions, more than a third of respondents have increased the number of workers they had recruited using 457 visas. This is an increase of more than 10% from 2010, illustrating that the benefits of the government’s skilled migration solution are being utilised by more businesses nationally.

Unsurprisingly, Western Australia experienced the largest increase in 457 recruitment with nearly half the respondents from that state reporting an increase in numbers. While this is obviously aligned to the resource boom, the figures do illustrate that migrant workers are becoming a more viable alternative to fill shortages.

By industry, increases to skilled migration are most apparent in the mining, construction and manufacturing sectors. Energy and resources (electricity, oil, gas and water) saw an increase from 2010 and since last year the business and consulting services sector has reported increase usage of the scheme.

The UK and Ireland remain the source country of most of Australia’s skilled migrants with 31% of respondents recruiting from that region. The rest of Europe (17.5%) and China/South East Asia (15.5%) and South Africa (9.5%) are also strong sources of 457 migrants.

Australia’s skills shortage continues to grow with sought after skills now spreading beyond the technical and trade categories. 61% of survey respondents reported experiencing skills shortages during the past 12 months compare with the 51% that disclosed shortages in 2010.

The sharp year-on-year jump in skills shortages in Western Australia (18%) doubtlessly reflected ongoing investment in that state’s resources sector. Analysis on the most sought after skills being brought into the country using the 457 visa scheme show that demand for engineering and mining specialists as well as the trade categories combined to be at least double that of any other skill category.

66% of respondents said they intend to recruit additional workers under the 457 visa scheme in the next 12 month period, an increase of 10% from 2010. Of these, 56% expect the increases to be of less than 20 full time staff. Companies from Western Australia, Victoria and South Australia planned significant increases in their 457 visa hires over the next 12 months.

Many employers continue to recruit offshore to satisfy their skill needs, and even as economic activity is slowing across some sectors, the accelerating retirement of the ‘baby boomer’ generation is leaving large skill and experience gaps in the Australian workforce. It is a trend that will intensify over the coming decade, with the first of the baby-boomers reaching age 65 in 2011. More than 28% of respondent business reported that they were already feeling the effects of the departure of baby boomers from the workforce. Asked if they expected to become more reliant on 457 visa holders to fill skilled vacancies over the next five years, 43% of survey participants responded yes. This is an increase of 11% from 2010.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents thought the Australian Government could more effectively leverage its skilled migration programmes to support population growth. The challenge for Government now is to keep up-to-date with a moving and unsettled global economy and ensure that the 457 visa program will continue to meet and support Australia’s skilled migration requirements.