Fewer Skilled Migrants For Australia

Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has indicated that there might be fewer places available in the country’s skilled immigration program next year.

The combination of a recent drop in job ads together with a reduction in Australian full time jobs has raised concerns that the Australian economy will soon have too few jobs to accommodate the current quota of new migrants. Recent storms in the world’s financial markets are increasing the uncertainty about Australia’s needs for more workers.

Speaking to the Fairfax Radio Network in Melbourne, Mr Rudd said, “As with all previous governments, and mine’s the same, whenever we set immigration targets we will adjust them according to the economic circumstances of the day.”

Mr Rudd commented that the current migrant quota is higher than last year’s and the increase had been made on the requirements of employers for more skilled workers, particularly in Queensland and Western Australia where resources and mining jobs were still easy to come by.

There are 190,300 places in this year’s migration program, up almost 20 percent on 2007. Places are divided between 133,500 skilled migrants and 56,500 family sponsored migrants.

Mr Rudd said, possibly referring to the fact that Western Australia and Queensland are still recruiting workers while employment elsewhere is flat, or even shrinking, that immigration was not one-size-fits-all for all states and the government would be listening to employers with regard to where shortages of skilled workers were still hampering the economy.

There is some good news for potential migrants too. House prices in Australia are falling, the Australian dollar has weakened on foreign exchanges and Australia’s Reserve Bank has been slashing interest rates. So, Australian migrants lucky enough to be arriving into well paid jobs are now finding Australian homes more affordable than they have been for some time.