Aussie companies are increasingly hiring overseas-based workers remotely to fill labour shortage

Australian companies have the biggest appetite in the Asia Pacific for hiring overseas remote talent.

Australian companies are increasingly hiring workers remotely.

The hiring of overseas tech workers on remote contracts by Australian companies is up 292 per cent, compared with the second half of 2021 – the highest level of all countries in the Asia Pacific, according to new data by Deel.

Workers from the Philippines, India and Pakistan are benefiting most from the trend, with salaries growing 158 per cent in India, 155 per cent in the Philippines and 104 per cent in Thailand.

Software engineers, statisticians and creative solutions specialists are the most in-demand roles.

Deel country lead Shannon Karaka said the hiring of overseas remote workers in the APAC region was now at 227 per cent, up from the 159 per cent his company found at the time of its H2 Global Hiring Report.

While there wasn’t an update on figures from Australia, it’s understood the figure has grown.

Deel’s report drew data from more than 100,000 employment contracts from its 11,000 customers across 150 countries.

The company actively encourages recruitment of overseas workers. “If you want great talent that won’t cut into profits, think more globally,” reads the takeaway from the report.

Deel operates a platform which allows employers to hire and retain talent in line with local law in about 150 countries. It also has a consultancy arm that helps employers set up overseas entities, Mr Karaka said.

One reason why Australian employers looked abroad was the nation’s “dated immigration system” which can “take six to nine months to hire people or to relocate offshore workers into Australia,” Mr Karaka said.

Deel country lead Shannon Karaka. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

“If we’re looking at tech talent specifically, organisations right now are thrust into a position where 156,000 workers are required to bridge the skills gap by 2025,” he said.

“The government right now is looking at reform to improve that, but that’s a medium to long-term solution. Our view right now is that an option that organisations have is to consider hiring globally.”

Earlier this year, a Tech Council of Australia report found that an additional 653,000 tech workers would need to be employed to reach the federal government’s target of filing 1.2 million tech jobs by 2030.

The report found vacancy rates in tech to be 60 per cent higher than the national average and was forecast to grow at triple the rate.

In October, the Australian Computer Society Guide to IT Professions report found Australian employers demanded more than those in the UK and the US.

About 97 per cent of job postings in the tech sector required tertiary qualification, as opposed to 90 per cent in the UK and 86 per cent in the US.

ACS vice president Jo Dalvean said employers should consider alternative pathways into the tech sector to fill shortages.

“For employers, the report shows how important it is to establish alternative pathways into the industry beyond IT-related degrees. Some of the sector’s best talent doesn’t come through traditional career progression,” she said.

“In truth, many roles are filled by recruiters or informal approaches through industry forums or sites like LinkedIn. It’s very much a headhunters’ market at the moment and every employer should assume their best workers are being courted right now.”

Over the past five years, IT jobs had grown 14 per cent and cyber security roles have doubled.

Job postings seeking database architects have grown the most of all tech roles at 191 per cent, followed by data warehousing specialists at 174 per cent and data scientists at 113 per cent. The majority of positions were in NSW, Victoria and Canberra.

Originally published as Aussie companies are increasingly hiring overseas-based workers remotely to fill labour shortage