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SKILLED migrants wanting to escape the chills and wet of the UK will have little trouble finding suitable work in regional Australia where there are major shortages of skilled and semi-skilled workers.
Large and small employers are desperate to find these workers and in many major cities and towns there is virtually no unemployment.
The Federal Government is tacking this problem with the newly-introduced regional migration scheme (SIR).
Three academics who addressed the 12th annual International Employment Relations Conference in Yeppoon, on Queensland's central coast, said there was a serious absence of skilled employees in the regions in both the private and public sector.
In Townsville, on the north Queensland coast, one of the state's largest regional centres, employers have launched a recruitment drive to overcome a problem that has almost banished unemployment from the area.
"If I could name one of the most pressing problems we face it would have to be our skills shortage, said Townsville Chamber of Commerce president John Bearne.
"We almost have an effective unemployment rate of zero."
Health care and education have been hardest hit. But industrial electricians, chefs, plumbers, hairdressers and even furniture upholsterers are increasingly hard to find.
Professor Paul Hyland, Bruce Acutt and Karen Windeknecht, all with the Central Queensland University in Rockhampton, blamed the forces of globalisation for the skills drain.
"Regional Australia has been exposed to the forces of globalisation and the impact on employment has been significant," they said.
The authors said Queensland was the key growth state for jobs in Australia, recording 3.9 per cent annual growth rate compared with 1.8 per cent nationally.
"However, all these jobs are located in the economic control room of Queensland, around Brisbane, in the south-east of the State."
Mr Bearne said job vacancies in the north ranged from mathematics professors at James Cook University, in Townsville, to skilled workers in the huge Mount Isa mine.
"It goes right across all sections of the work force."
"In rural and regional areas, fluctuations can cause major disruptions and shortages can be long term as it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract and retain skilled workers," the authors said.