Stop working for Indian outsourcing oligarchs - Jobs waiting for you in Australia
Kiran Chaube
Aug. 16, 2005

Australia is looking for skilled workers. You do not have to work for Indian outsourcing oligarchs any more – you can migrate to Australia.

According to media sources, Australia on Tuesday launched its biggest overseas recruitment drive in 50 years to get the skilled workers needed to continue a world-beating 14 years of continuous growth that has driven unemployment to a 28-year low.

With employers to complaining about the scarcity of staff, a global job expo to find 20,000 new Australians will start next month with drives in Berlin, Amsterdam, London and Chennai. Next year, the roadshow will move to Bangkok, Seoul, Los Angeles and Manila.

Anybody, anywhere, can apply - and the vacancies range from accountants to hairdressers, nurses to plumbers.

"We have a non-discriminatory immigration policy," Prime Minister John Howard said earlier this year, when announcing a 20,000-place increase that will take the target immigration intake to 1,40,000 this year. "We will take skilled people who fit the bill from anywhere in the world."

Australia has its lowest unemployment rate since The Beatles were top of the pops. With only five percent of the workforce without a job, economists reckon that full employment has been reached.

The birth rate is an average of 1.75 children for each woman of childbearing age. That is not enough to restock the workforce, prompting Canberra to look abroad to make up the numbers.

The opposition Labour Party, which is tied closely to the unions, is wary of the overseas recruitment scheme, believing it is a scheme by the conservative government to drive down wages and prise open the job market.

Labour leader Kim Beazley urged the government to address the problem by enticing Australia's one million expatriates to return home.

"We should work much harder to capitalise on their links to trade investment and overseas cultures and perhaps encourage a few more to come home," he said.

Peter Hendy, chief executive of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that recalling the Australian diaspora was easier to say than do.

"People go overseas because they want to expand their life experiences and to expand their job experiences," Hendy said. "What you find is that one of the bars of them coming back to Australia is that they have to pay too high a tax rate. We need to reform the tax system to get them back."

Population expert Graeme Hugo of Adelaide University warns that lifting immigration is not the answer. A better bet, he said, is to get those already in Australia back into work.

Another obstacle the government faces is professional bodies that deny skilled migrants jobs that are commensurate with their qualifications. Former university professors end up driving taxis because their qualifications are not recognized.

Australia's first big recruitment drive was after World War II, when more than 1 million mostly British people were given assisted passage to help them make new lives in Australia.

Stop working for Indian outsourcing oligarchs - Jobs waiting for you in Australia
Kiran Chaube
Australia is looking for skilled workers.
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