Australia has now increased its limit on permanent migration into the country for the first time in ten years because of the severe sake workforce shortage crisis in the country.
Reports have it that go up to 195,000 individuals would be allowed in this current financial year. This will increase to 35,000 individuals from the former number. The COVID-19 pandemic plus Australia’s severe border policy had helped to cause severe staffing shortages in the nation’s different sectors.
The Australian government had announced that it needed workers from China, India, and the UK (Australia’s government’s top source of income) to fill the several gaps the county was lacking in.
Currently, there are about 480,000 job vacancies passed across the country, but the unemployment rate is at its lowest point in 50 years, making employers struggle to find workers. The industries critically in need of workers were the hospitality sector, healthcare sector, agriculture, and skilled trade sectors respectively.
The government has promised A$36m ($24.4m; £21m) to hire more staff so that the long queue seen at the visa processing center would be greatly reduced. Even though migration to the country had dropped during the 2020 pandemic, over one million people had migrated to Australia since 2016.
Additionally, for the first time, Australia’s census has revealed that more than half of the country’s population had been born outside the country or that the parent had given birth outside the country.