Shutting Australia’s national borders for two years to prevent the spread of COVID left Australia with a temporary migrant deficit of up to 190,000 people, contributing to the current shortage of workers in the hospitality and retail sectors.

As new figures show migrants starting to return, particularly to Victoria and NSW, analysis by independent think tank E61 Institute shows the missing migrant workers can account for almost all the increase in job vacancies afflicting some parts of the economy.

The absence of international students and other temporary migrants has contributed to job shortages affecting parts of the economy.Credit:Oscar Colman

The federal government will use next month’s budget to increase Australia’s permanent migrant intake to 195,000 for the 2022-23 financial year, in response to complaints from the business sector about the nation’s shortage of workers.

It has become particularly acute as the unemployment rate has fallen sharply. There are about 490,000 job vacancies across the country while about 480,000 people are officially out of work.

The research by E61, an independent think tank backed by economists and universities in Australia and the United States, suggests the pandemic meant between 57,000 and 186,000 temporary migrants who would have been in the country and working were now missing from the Australian workforce.

It found these missing workers were a “significant driver” of the nation’s workforce challenges, saying they could account for almost 20 per cent of the recent surge in all job vacancies.

“ The shock has hit some industries harder than others. A large portion of missing migrant workers are concentrated in industries like hospitality that previously relied heavily on international students and working holidaymakers,” it found.

“Even under our low scenario, missing migrant workers can potentially account for 83 per cent of the increase in job vacancies in hospitality.”

The institute found that while the government was looking to boost immigration, more would have to be done to catch up the country’s worker shortfall, including policies to boost housing and infrastructure.

It also warned that Australia was facing a global fight for migrants, noting the treatment of international students and other temporary immigrants during COVID may make it more difficult to woo people from overseas.

Migrants have started coming back into Victoria and NSW, attracted by major construction projects such Sydney’s new Victoria Cross Station

But new figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show there is already a rush of new migrants through customs.

Australia’s population swelled by 124,168 in the first three months of this year, the largest quarterly increase since 2017. There are now 25.9 million people in the country.

The lift during the quarter was driven by immigration.

Through the March quarter, a net 96,135 migrants moved into Australia. It was the largest March intake of foreign residents on record.

In March last year, Australia lost a net 14,190 people to other nations.

Record quarterly March intakes were set in NSW, Victoria and South Australia while it was the largest number into Queensland in a decade.

Most of the new residents made a bee-line for Victoria (32,014) and NSW (34,272), who together absorbed almost 70 per cent of net overseas migrants. In March last year, Victoria lost 9881 residents through net overseas migration while NSW lost 806.

Victoria, which lost 40,000 of its population over 18 months of the pandemic, added 33,373 residents through the March quarter, the strongest quarter in three years.

Over the past six months, it has made up the total loss suffered during the pandemic with annual population growth, at 0.7 per cent, now above the rates in NSW (0.6 per cent), Tasmania (0.5 per cent), the ACT (0.6 per cent) and the Northern Territory (0.3 per cent).

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.

Most Viewed in Politics

From our partners

Source: Read Full Article