Immigration Update | 16 March 2009

In an announcement today by the federal Government, the Immigration Minister Chris Evans states that they will continue to remove occupations from the skilled migration program.

The Minister said in a statement on Monday,  "The government will remove occupations from the list if demand for those skills can be satisfied by local labour.  The overwhelming message from business and industry is that Australia still needs to maintain a skilled migration program, but the program needs to be more targeted so that migrant workers are meeting skills shortages and not competing with locals for jobs."

Bricklayers, plumbers, welders, carpenters and metal fitters are among the occupations taken off the critical skills list as demand for skilled labour falls in the building and construction sectors. He indicates that health and medical, engineering and IT professionals, still in short supply, will remain on the list.

The government has announced that the skilled migration program intake will be cut by nearly 20,000 to 115,000 this financial year.   However, employers will still be able to sponsor migrant workers privately or through the 457 visa scheme, provided they can prove local labour is not available.

Life Relocation, in response to these tightening requirements on the class 457 visa scheme, are taking the lead to assist our clients in these difficult times.  

"By involving key partners in the recruitment sector, Life Relocation are finalising a programme to assist our clients in demonstrating a need for overseas skilled labour to satisfy these new Government requirements, " said Linda Pendlebury, Principal.    

The programme will particularly focus on demonstrating the level and suitablity of local labour to assist in supporting a visa application if necessary.

Contact Life Relocation for further details of this new initative, and how Life Relocation are able to support all of your Visa, Migration and Relocation requirments.

The Life Relocation Team