Skilled migration and the workforce: An overview

• Summary
• Purpose
• Approach
• Research questions
• Methodology
• Organisations

Summary

Purpose

In an environment of skills shortages occurring in a range of areas, there has been increased interest in the prospect of immigration of skilled people as a short-term means of alleviating the shortages. Currently, a very substantial proportion of Australia's immigration program is skills related.

The purpose of the paper is to provide an overview of what we know about the contribution of immigration to Australia's skill base, focusing particularly on two major occupational groups: the para-professionals and technicians, and the trades (categories 3 and 4 in the Australian Standard Classification of Occupations).

The project looks first at the extent of the skilled migration component in Australia's overall migration program and then assesses the importance of the contribution of migrants to the vocationally skilled component of the labour market.

Approach

Review of literature and statistics

Research questions

1. What do the statistics tell us about the extent of the skilled component of Australia's overall migration stream and the changes that have taken place in recent years?

2. What proportions of the relevant occupations are made up of people born overseas (long-term migrants)?

3. What proportion of the relevant occupations are made up of recent migrants?

4. To what extent are skills obtained overseas being used in the relevant occupations?

5. To what extent are migrants' overseas qualifications being formally recognised in Australia?

Methodology

The paper will be based on:

* data drawn from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, and other relevant sources,

* relevant reports and other literature already published.

Organisations

This project has been funded under the NCVER Core-funded program.