The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, will today (Friday) urge the states and territories to boost their use of state-sponsored skilled migration to meet labour market demands.
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THE North West is among the regions affected by an increasing shortage of nursing staff.
Reports by Sydney media on the weekend claimed that by 2012 the State could have a shortage of 10,000 nurses.
Citing leaked health documents, reports said there were currently 1000 vacancies, with the number of extra nurses needed predicted to rise.
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AUSTRALIA’S skills crisis has reached alarming new levels with fast-food giants McDonald’s and KFC forced to use the controversial 457 skilled visa program to recruit staff.
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The numbers of people coming into Australia under the government’s 457 work visa program has jumped more than 30 per cent in the last two months. The Federal Government says 457 grants expanded following a commitment by the Minister for Immigration to clear a backlog of applications before June 30. But independent immigration analyst, Bob Kinnaird, doubts rural and regional areas are benefiting from the influx..
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AUSTRALIA’S economy cannot continue to grow without a lot more skilled migrant workers, Immigration Minister Chris Evans says.
Senator Evans warned today of an ageing population and a range of industries that could not find enough skilled workers to enable their businesses to grow.
“So there is a huge demand. We will meet it by upskilling our own people, but we have got to make sure we have got strong skilled migration as well if we are going to grow,” the senator told Sky news.
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The Australian workforce needs another 200,000 full-time employees so skills shortages do not put firms at risk of losing their competitive edge, a report says.
More than two-thirds of firms have suffered over the past year because of the skills shortage, the survey of 492 chief executives by the Australian Industry Group and Deloitte found.
Six out of 10 of these firms in the services, construction and manufacturing sectors blamed skills shortages for restricting innovation.
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