Migration To Australia: Skill Shortage

With many jobs being unfilled in Australia, especially as the unemployment rate is decreasing, many employers cannot find skillful workers in certain specialised skills. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has stated that the total job vacancies in August 2019 were 236,500, 213,300 of which are in the private sector and 23,200 in the public sector.

As the Australian Government Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business’ role is to support economic growth, it performs regular research to explore the skills that are lacking in Australia, which then translates into a skill shortage occupation list at different levels: national, state & regional. This helps people looking to Migrate to Australia identify how easy it would be to apply and obtain a working visa as well as finding a job as they move to Australia.

So, which occupations require more skills to come to Australia?

Generally, there is a huge shortage in skills related to trade. This includes automotive and engineering trades, so vacancies like automotive mechanic, electrician, polisher, painter are hard to fill, as well as machinists, metal welders, metal fitters and aircraft engineers. Food trades are also struggling to find skillful candidates for jobs like bakers, chefs, pastry cooks, butchers among many others.

Jobs not related to trade that are also facing skill shortage include engineers, certain health professionals like speech therapists, optometrists and sonographers, teachers and nurses.

The skill shortage assessment enables the Australian Government to release the three categories of the Skilled Occupation List (SOL): the Medium and long-term skill shortage list (MLTSSL), the Short-term skill shortage list (STSSL) and the Regional occupation list (ROL). Occupation ceilings apply for each of these occupations, which defines the maximum number of invitations that can be issued for each occupation, this also helps people who are looking to migrate to Australia to assess their chances to move to Australia and get a job.

The highest occupation ceiling for 2019-2020 is for registered nurses, with a ceiling of 17,509. This is followed by 8,748 for software and application programmers, then electricians, carpenters and joiners, secondary school teachers and metal fitters and machinists.

A recent report by Deloitte stated that since some of the shortages are affecting critical occupations, this could affect the economy if the gap is not filled, since some of these sectors include construction, education, health and other professional services.

At Australia Migrate, we provide a range of visa and citizenship services for people who are looking to migrate to Australia, whether on a skilled worker visa, student visa or other visas including the recently introduced skilled regional visas. With a team of registered migration agents, our immigration specialists and consultants can help you obtain a visa that allows you to stay permanently in Australia.

Since the Australian laws only allow immigration advice from a registered MARA (Migration Agents Registration Authority), you should always seek help from a genuine immigration consultant, as going with a cheap immigration agent does not always mean you will get the service you are after.

Our MARA Agents are always aware and on top of any visa or immigration changes, so you can rest assured you will never miss on an update or get an outdated advice. Most importantly, our MARA Agents will advise give you genuine and realistic advice about your visa options. We are trusted migration agency which many individuals and businesses, both big and small, turn to for their visa needs, time and time again.