BackAustralia lifts permanent immigration cap: Check eligibility, benefits
Due to the tough border policies during the pandemic, there has been a significant gap in many sectors and it has to be filled by ‘workers from countries including China, India and the UK - Australia's top sources of migration.’
PremiumIn a bid to address workforce shortages, Australia has announced to raise its cap on permanent migration for the first time in decades. In 2022-23, the government has decided to take up 195,000 people, a sharp increase of 35,000.
Due to the tough border policies during the pandemic, there has been a significant gap in many sectors and the government said, that it has to be filled by ‘workers from countries including China, India and the UK - Australia's top sources of migration.’
Which sectors have the most vacancy?
In Australia, the unemployment rate is at a 50-year low with over 480,000 job vacancies across the country. Most hard-hit sectors are hospitality, healthcare, agriculture and skilled trade industries.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil said earlier today, "Our focus is always Australian jobs first... but the impact of Covid has been so severe that even if we exhaust every other possibility, we will still be many thousands of workers short, at least in the short term."
“Thousands more engineers and nurses need to be brought in to ease critical workforce shortages."
The increase will take effect for the current financial year ending June 2023 and will bring Australia's immigration target largely in line with the annual cap of 190,000 that was in place between 2013 and 2019.
"It makes no sense to bring people in, have them for a few years, then get a new cohort in to adapt to the Australian work environment," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters on the sidelines of a government jobs summit in Canberra.
"We want people ... to have a mortgage, to raise a family, to join the Australian family. Migration is part of our story."
Australian states easing visa rules
Meanwhile, the states and territories have also announced to ease certain terms for visa applications owing to the shortage of skilled workforce. Generally, migrants are sponsored by employers for a visa to stay in the country, but there are times when state and territory authorities can also nominate skilled workers for visas.
Some states have pushed hard to get more spots this year owing to the high demand for skilled workers. In fact, Western Australia doubling its number of visas after the government lobbied the federal government for an extra allocation. It will now offer 8,140 places this financial year.
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