Australia’s most in-demand professions revealed, but migrants wary of returning

Australia faces a shortfall of civil engineers, chefs and childcare workers over the next five years, the federal government fears as new research shows the nation’s tight anti-COVID immigration rules have left potential skilled workers wary of seeking to move Down Under.

Ahead of next month’s jobs and skills summit, the government says there is a looming shortage of workers across a string of key sectors, backing its plan to lift investment in the vocational education sector.

Chefs will be among the most in-demand workers over the next five years, according to the government’s list.Credit: Jim Rice

Migration and the shortage of skilled workers – with the unemployment rate at a 48-year low of 3.4 per cent – is shaping as one of the key issues at the summit.

The government says that based on the Skills Priority List, job vacancy data and projected growth in employment, demand will grow over the next five years for construction managers, early childhood teachers, registered nurses, ICT business and systems analysts and electricians.

Civil engineers, chefs, childcare workers, aged and disabled carers are also expected to be in high demand.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the jobs summit would look at ways to immediately deal with the shortage of skilled workers.

“Next week we are hosting our jobs and skills summit that will bring together unions, business groups and the people who help run our world-class [vocational education and training] sector, to look at how we deliver immediate action on the skills shortages Australia is facing,” he said.

Business groups and unions have already identified possible areas of agreement around a lift in the migrant intake ahead of the summit. Research by Deloitte Access Economics shows there are now signs net overseas migration, which turned negative during COVID, is slowly starting to rebuild but is still at a “fraction” of its pre-COVID level.

In the final three months of 2021, a net 29,000 people arrived in the country. That was just 26 per cent of the net 113,000 residents that Australia lost to other parts of the world in the preceding 18 months.

Deloitte partner Fiona Webb said the jobs summit, apart from ensuring the country developed the skills base for Australia’s economic future, had to deal with the current “needlessly complex” migration system.

“The highest order priority is to clearly signal to the world that Australia is open for business. Our pandemic-era border policies created a lingering level of uncertainty among potential skilled migrants,” she said.

The author of the Deloitte paper, David Rumbens, said while the focus of many had been on skilled migration, an increase in the humanitarian intake should also be considered, as there would be “profound” longer-term economic and social benefits.

At the weekend, Immigration Minister Andrew Giles told The Sun-Herald the government would lift the annual refugee intake over time, giving no indication whether it would be included in the October budget.

Deloitte said the government should overhaul the way occupations are formally classified.

Under current rules, every person applying for a temporary or permanent work visa must nominate an occupation. Deloitte said at the time of the last update of the occupation classification system in 2013, many of the nation’s fastest-growing jobs did not exist.

It said Australia would become a more attractive destination for high-skilled migrants by providing a better and more clear-cut pathway to permanent residency for all business-sponsored temporary residents.

Commonwealth Bank senior economist Belinda Allen said there still appeared to be challenges in attracting migrants and students to the country, who would be pivotal to dealing with current worker shortages.

Figures compiled by the bank show the number of foreign student visa arrivals so far this year is just 27 per cent of the comparable six-month period of 2019.

CBA senior economist Belinda Allen says the number of foreign students entering the country is just 27 per cent of its pre-COVID level.

“These lower numbers are impacting on the dollar value of education exports (which count tuition fees and spending while in Australia) as well as labour supply in areas such as hospitality and retail,” Allen said.

Universities Australia, in a paper to be released on Monday, said the sector could help address the nation’s skills shortage.

It wants the jobs and skills summit to consider ways to make it easier for people to retrain and upskill while providing incentives for research collaboration between universities and industries.

Similar to Deloitte, it also believes there needs to be better pathways for graduating foreign students to stay in Australia, especially in areas of skills shortage such as health, teaching and technology.

“Australian universities have a vital role to play in addressing the nation’s skill shortages, ensuring businesses – big and small – have the workforce they need to fuel our economy, solve the challenges before us and embrace opportunities,” Universities Australia chief executive Catriona Jackson said.

Unions have signalled they expect the summit to canvass issues around migration, but are also pushing the government to link the summit to broader issues, including possible job losses caused by changes in the nation’s energy system.

The ACTU on Monday will release a new report advocating the creation of an “energy transition authority” that would ensure the support of communities and workers affected by the move to net zero.

ACTU president Michele O’Neil said there had been chaos across the country over the past decade as coal-fired power stations had closed.

An energy transition authority would ensure communities did not have to choose between climate action and good jobs.

“Climate change is already with us, with workers across all industries suffering the health impacts of extreme heat and climate-related disasters, while dealing with the rising cost of living due to crop and land degradation – there needs to be a mitigation and adaptation plan from the government,” she said.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.