Skill Shortages – Part 2

It is difficult to find an impartial analyst – especially one who is both curious enough and thorough enough to uncover the facts and present the truth on the story of Australia’s "skill shortages" - and related government policy.

And the story of the 457 visa has been clouded by claim and counterclaim. To uncover the truth we need to dig deep to find and then discard the views of "vested interests" whose job it is to obfuscate.

For example, according to the Immigration Department, the latest (July 2008) figures show the average salary for a 457 visa-holder is around $73,000 and this is often compared with the average Australian salary of about $55,000 – all supposedly to demonstrate that these folks are being well paid – and so we should not be concerned.

The problem is that around 81% of the incoming workers are professionals – a significantly higher percentage than the Australian workforce generally. So you can see how this is an example of using selected statistics to skew the truth.

Journalists in the mainstream media in particular have been guilty of this – often just regurgitating the spin that is put about by "vested interests".

For a fairly complete and somewhat impartial commentary on the 457 visa there is a transcript of an interview between Peter Mares, Bob Kinnaird and Siew-Ean Khoo here.

As Bob Kinnaird says, "The key concerns about the IT area in 457s are that the visa grants in IT were actually increasing during a period of downturn in the graduate labour market in particular in Australia. Over the period 2001 to 2005 we had record levels of graduate unemployment amongst Australian graduates from computer science courses, yet the department was actually increasing the number of visa grants to young 457 visa holders and predominantly the growth was going to people from Indian companies and their salaries were being approved at very low rates".

The results of these "unintended consequences" are there for all to see in the shunning of computer science courses by young Australians in 2008. They observed what happened and have voted with their feet – often moving to legal and medical studies – which are seen as being "safer".

Meanwhile, the salaries of IT workers have plummeted and the bar has been moved ever lower. There does appear to be a key linkage between talking up "skill shortages" and driving down the salaries of Australian workers.

And we talk about being the "clever country".