Australia to scour for skilled workers

CANBERRA, Aug. 28 (Reuters) — Welders, plumbers, accountants and nurses — Australia needs you, about 100,000 of you.

The country has begun its most aggressive campaign to attract skilled workers since the great wave of post-World War Two immigration, when tens of thousands of Europeans and Britons were given free passage in the 1950s and 60s.

A nation on the fringe of Southeast Asia but built on waves of mostly European migration, Australia accepts 120,000 migrants a year, mostly skilled workers, but also people joining families already in the country and refugees.

Last year 80,000 skilled workers arrived, but a continuing shortage and an ageing population has spurred the government to launch an advertising campaign in Britain, the Netherlands, Germany and India to fill an extra 20,000 places in its skilled migration program.

"We really haven’t done this sort of aggressive recruiting since the 1950s and 60s," Immigration Department deputy secretary Abul Rizvi told Reuters.

The campaign will end in roadshows in London, Amsterdam, Berlin and the Indian city of Chennai, formerly known as Madras, where potential migrants will talk to Australian officials and employers and then put their applications on a fast track.

With unemployment currently at 28-year lows at 5.0 percent, many Australian companies have been struggling to find enough workers to fill job vacancies, particularly in the mining and building sectors.

Rizvi told Reuters that Australia has a strong demand for welders, carpenters, electricians and plumbers, as well as engineers, accountants, doctors and nurses.

On-line job agency Seek.com.au lists more than 3,100 vacancies for qualified tradesmen and women, more than 12,000 vacancies for a range of accounting jobs, almost 6,000 engineering jobs and more than 4,700 healthcare jobs.

"It is tough to get people. We’ve had a chronic problem in terms of metallurgists, mining engineers and geologists since the mid 1990s," said Mitchell Hooke, chief executive of the Australian Minerals Council.

The Western Australian state Chamber of Minerals and Energy will take part in the roadshow in Chennai, where it hopes to recruit engineers, metallurgists and geologists to work in the state’s booming resource sector.

"The shortages are serious today and is likely to be serious for the next 10 years," said chamber director Reg Howard-Smith

 

 

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