Decline In Australian Net Immigration

09 Dec 2010

Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that net immigration rate has dropped sharply in the month of October this year. Figures show that there has been a decline of around 38 percent in net Australia immigration in the last one year till October 2010 which is worrying the Australian government.

A total of 210,420 more persons came to Australia than the number of people leaving Australia in the 12 months till October this year, the ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) figures maintain. And this is certainly far less than the figure of net migration levels of Australia for the previous year which was 324,720.

In October, the total number of foreign arrivals settling in Australia was only 9,370, which is the lowest since March 2004 while the net arrivals in October 2010 has been 15,350 and this clearly shows declining rates of immigration levels in Australia.

Decline in immigration levels is leading to decline in rate of foreign students to Australia and severe skills shortages in many sectors. Mining sector is experiencing shortage of required number of engineers. Also, there are some upcoming projects which required workforce. The nation is also going to witness the beginning of a NBN (National Broadband Network) soon and it will increase demand for engineers to fulfill the vacant job positions.

Craig James, an economist with Commonwealth Securities opinionate that job markets in Australia are extremely tight and the firms are not finding sufficient local workers to fill the vacancies. Firms are asking for increased number of foreign workers while the number of migrants coming to Australia is declining

He added that having a balanced employment market in the nation is in the interests of the Australians and that no one would like to see high interest rates by the Reserve bank.