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

30 March 2011

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry economics director Greg Evans warned that the nation would pay the price of slower population growth and falling net migration in higher inflation and delayed projects unless it got the immigration settings right. “Redressing the balance towards skilled migration will be a priority in sectors such as resources and energy,” he said. “If we don’t get this policy right it will add to wage pressures and inflation but also delay important projects and expansion opportunities.”

The slowdown was driven by a plunge in net overseas migration, which fell to 42,500 people in the September quarter – a 41 per cent drop from the same period in 2009. Net overseas migration in the 12 months to September dropped by a record 102,200 from the year before. Commonwealth Bank of Australia senior economist Michael Workman said such a slowdown did not bode well for the supply of labour, particularly given that the pace of economic activity was set to accelerate. “It exacerbates labour supply and wage pressures, particularly when you see what investment data is saying about demand for people not only in the mining sector, but also utilities, construction, engineering and labour services,” he said. “They are all going to grow strongly and they will need to get people from somewhere.”

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics also highlighted the struggle facing employers in WA in trying to lure workers from elsewhere in Australia. The state’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.2 per cent in February, but only a net 1202 people moved there from the rest of Australia in the September quarter.

Excerpt from: The Australian Financial Review (www.afr.com), 30 March 2011