Skilled migrant workers avoiding Australia, says Deloitte’s Fiona Webb

Australia has a poor image among skilled migrants because of its lengthy border closures and its difficult visa processes, according to Deloitte’s national immigration lead Fiona Webb.

The skilled shortage situation in Australia was set to get worse as young Australians start to look for jobs overseas as the borders open up. Picture: Getty Images

Australia has a poor image among skilled migrants because of its lengthy border closures and its difficult visa processes, according to Deloitte’s national immigration lead Fiona Webb.

She said the skilled shortage situation in Australia was set to get worse as young Australians start to look for jobs overseas as the borders open up.

In an interview with The Australian, Ms Webb said local companies and organisations were missing out on skilled migrants from overseas who were accepting jobs in other countries as they could not wait for the visa approvals in Australia.

“The slow nature of our (visa) processing, coupled with the uncertainty about the path to getting permanent residence in Australia, means employers are losing good candidates to other markets,” she said.

“These candidates often have offers on the table from two or three countries,” she added.

“Add to that, we are about to get an outflow from Australia as the 18 to 25-year-old group wants to go overseas again, now they have got the ability to do so.”

Ms Wood said there were significant skill shortages across the board from IT professionals, data scientists, people in health and education as well as other jobs like bus and train drivers.

She said the skilled worker shortages were having dire impacts on specific sectors, particularly in regional areas.

“It’s not just that we can’t get a chief executive into the country for a multinational, it is we can’t get enough people into areas like aged care. We are seeing clients wanting people like bus drivers and commercial train drivers and workers in agriculture who are in absolutely dire need of skilled labour so they can operate their businesses.”

She said Deloitte had one bus company which was unable to open up all its routes as it didn’t have enough drivers.

As bus drivers were not on the official list of workers that could be sponsored for a work visa, the company would have to go through a six to 12-month process with the Immigration Department to get accredited before they could apply to bring in foreign drivers.

Ms Webb said the long border closure over the pandemic had made many skilled foreign workers wary of coming here.