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BOOM TIMES CONTINUE By Lance Fee,Director Live Downunder UK THERE does not appear to be any end in sight to the economic boom that has been enjoyed by Australia for the last five years. In previous years, the Australian economy would react sharply to any downturn in the United States economy, but this is not the situation at the moment. Australia is riding on the growth of the Chinese economy and also on the development of several European economies. The huge reserve of natural resources has also added to Australia's 'boom times'. While unemployment has dropped to a 33 year low, the buoyant labour market has not come without pain. The demand for housing has lead to huge increases in property prices in most States and inflationary pressures have resulted in the central bank increasing interest rates in the last six months. These increases have placed greater pressure on the middle to low income families and have slowed the housing market and have had an adverse effect on consumer confidence. One of the key factors contributing to the inflationary pressure has been the skills shortage. This has hurt the employers in the non-resources sector as they cannot compete with the salaries and conditions offered by these companies. one of the main sectors to really feel the pain is the construction industry that has made approaches to Government to assist. As reported in last month's issue, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, the Hon Senator Chris Evans, announced an additional 6000 places in this year's skilled migration programme which finishes on June 30, 2008. While employer groups welcomed this news, the programme year has less than four months to run and there has been no noticeable increase in the rate of visa approvals through the Adelaide Skilled Processing Centre. In addition, there has been no decision made on those applications that were lodged on the basis of points being allocated for a designated investment, which has been withdrawn by the various gtate government investment bodies, which has been referred to the Minister. The other factor which brought a sudden and unexpected halt to many of the main overseas building industry tradespeople from applying was the decision of the main trade assessing body, Trades Recognition Australia, to refuse assessment of on-the-job-training applications in September 2007. While they have indicated there will be a new pathway for the assessment of these skills, there has been no announcement as at the time of writing. The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, March Vacancy Report shows that ICT occupational vacancies rose to 26,800 in the four weeks to end of March. There were also large vacancies in the food, hospitality and tourism sectors, which include many occupations that are not open to those interested in migration to Australia. |
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