5,000 extra spots for skilled foreign workers in Australia

Australia, 9th May: Australia government has announced creating nearly 5000 extra places for skilled foreign workers in the year 2012-13.

This will be done to help fulfill skills shortages in the nation.

Australia’s booming economy needs skilled workers--According to government sources, Australia is witnessing an increasingly high demand for skilled workers especially in the resources sector.

The resources sector in the nation is in a big boom calling for growing number of workers to work at various projects.

Increased annual intake of skilled workers in Australia--And to help get skilled workers, the government has decided to increase the annual intake for skilled foreign workers to 190,000.

Current annual intake of skilled foreign workers in Australia is 185,000 under Australia skilled migration program. So, the new increased quota will include 60,000 foreigners for family reunions while nearly 130,000 for skilled workers.

Since many regional areas including Perth are experiencing a good demand for skilled migrants, so, the government has allocated 16,000 skilled visa places for Australia’s regional sponsored migration scheme.

150,000 workers needed in next five years--According to director of international operations for Working In Ltd., Rupert Merrick, Australia will require over 150,000 workers to fulfill the demand for iron, coal mining and natural gas projects in the period of next five years.

And this means strong employment scenario for those possessing technical skills and prior work experience in oil and gas industry.

Lift temporary skilled migration--Australian employers—For quite some time now, several Australian employers have been stressing on the need for increasing the temporary skilled migration to cater to the surging skills shortage in the resources sector of the nation.

Employers alleged widening gap between high demand and poor supply of skilled workforce was leading to cost pressure.

And this could be detrimental to the development of projects in the nation, stated Michael Chaney, Woodside chairman. Currently, several multi-million projects are under progress in the oil and gas sector throughout Australia.

Although, skills development could provide some solace to solve the looming skills crisis in the nation, but the need for skilled foreign workers will be of utmost importance to continue the ongoing projects in Australia resources sector, Chaney informed.