IT recruitment suffering labour shortages.
Major employment recruiters in Australia are warning that migration cuts could damage future projects in Australia and lead to a huge skills shortage.
Both political parties have pledged to get tough on immigration and reduce migrant numbers which are blamed for the growing population of Australia. Tony Abbott has promised to cap immigration at 170,000 people whereas Labour say that changing immigration policy is already leading to a reduction of immigrants entering Australia.
Now the recruitment sector are having their say on the controversial issue of immigration. Jane Bianchini, chief executive of Professional Recruitment, warns that tightening migration rules are making it difficult to recruit skilled migrant labour to fill labour shortages.
The Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) have said that recent changes to immigration and visa policy will ensure that skilled migrants are directed towards where they are needed the most. However the recruitment sector says that the new rules are simply putting people off from applying for skilled visas.
Ms Bianchini said that recent telecommunications projects were suffering from a shortage of skilled workers as demand was exceeding supply. There is only one occupation under Telecommunications currently on the DIAC’s new Skilled Occupations List (SOL).
Peter Acheson, Peoplebank’s chief executive said that the recruitment sector would be facing skilled shortages by the end of the year and he warned that Sydney and Melbourne were already suffering labour shortages. “If you talk to senior executives in IT at the moment – and I do pretty consistently – one of the things that is foremost in their minds is the lack of skilled IT candidates and all are foreshadowing that we are going to need to bring more people in from overseas.”
He also said that Australia would face unsustainability not through a growing population, but a weakening economy because of critical skilled workers shortfalls that were not being filled by overseas workers, adding: “We certainly wouldn’t want to see a stop or a cap to the temporary 457 visa program and, moving forward, it is foreseeable that an increase might be required.”
His views are shared by Clicks IT Recruitment’s chief executive as well as Michael Page International’s managing director.
Yet the DIAC proudly announce that visa applications have almost halved since the new SOL was introduced and policy changes made the visa structure stricter than ever. Certainly there is no shortage of skilled workers wanting to work in Australia – our own embrace community verifies that – but fewer are getting the visas they want leading to frustration amongst migrants and businesses.
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