Australia raises permanent migration intake by 35,000 to 195,000 amid labour squeeze
- Impacted by Covid-19 border closures, Australia is grappling with skills and labour shortages
- Australia is competing with other developed economies to lure more skilled employees from overseas
Australia will increase its permanent immigration numbers by 35,000 to 195,000 in the current financial year as it looks to shift its focus toward long-term migrants, bringing some relief for businesses battling widespread staff shortages.
Australia closed its borders for about two years during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic but those strict rules and an exodus of holiday workers and foreign students left businesses struggling to find staff and keep their businesses afloat.
“Covid is presenting us, on a platter, with a chance to reform our immigration system that we will never get back again. I want us to take that chance,” Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil told a government jobs summit on Friday.
“Based on projections, this could mean thousands more nurses settling in the country this year, thousands more engineers.”
Australia’s unemployment rate is now at a near 50-year-low of 3.4 per cent but soaring inflation means real wages are down.
Businesses have been urging the government to raise the cap on annual immigration from 160,000, prompting it to make temporary changes to fill the labour gap.
