In today’s blog, we will discuss the recently published Skills Priority List and Australia’s worsening labour shortages.
Australia’s overwhelming skills shortage problem has been raising questions about whether conditions for immigration will be changed to tackle the problem.
In the past year, the number of professions suffering from lack of labour has worsened, with Australian authorities trying to find the best ways to deal with the problem, though changes to visa opportunities won’t be made ‘automatically.’
Per the 2022 Skills Priority List report of the federal-government-funded National Skills Commission, compared to 153 occupations in 2021, 286 occupations have been facing labour shortages.
According to the recent remarks of Skills Minister Brendan O’Conner, the sharp rise in occupations listed in the Skills Priority List reiterates the urgent need to handle skills shortages.
The new list was revealed ahead of the recent Ministerial Skills Council in Melbourne, during which skills ministers from across Australia gathered to discuss the best possible way to tackle the labour shortages.
The highest in-demand professions include software programmers, nurses, aged care workers, child care workers and construction managers.
The National Skills Commission assists the government in making decisions by offering advice. However, according to a program director in a Melbourne-based public-policy institute, the newly published list wouldn’t necessarily result in any instant changes to skilled occupation lists produced by the government, which is used for visa processing and drives most of Australia’s skilled migration.
Skills Minister Mr. O’Connor also stated that the government had taken necessary and immediate steps to close the skills gaps and improve the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector, that is why the Albanese Government arranged the Jobs and Skills Summit and is focusing on getting the Jobs, and Skills Australia Bill approved, which is now in the Senate.
He further added that this is also why the national cabinet agreed to offer 180,000 fee-free Technical and Further Education (TAFE) places by 2023 and why the Labor Government is dedicated to providing 20,000 new university places.
The commission’s report states that the pandemic, along with the changing economic landscape, caused hurdles and challenges in many occupations, including the health professionals and teachers sectors.
The report further added that during that time, ongoing problems in the labour market, such as a lack of technicians and trades workers persisted.
The report revealed the frequency of jobs advertised in Australia had risen by 42 percent when compared to the same time last year, with 309,900 jobs announced in August 2022.
More than half of the 20 largest fields of employment including electricians, the aged and disabled carers, store persons and waitresses, were having skills shortages.
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