Australia Increases Skilled Workers Quota to Address Labour Shortage

A new announcement by the Australian government has been released recently. According to the reports, the quota for skilled workers has been increased to improve the labor shortage. The government has proposed to issue 109,000 skilled workers’ visas during the financial year under its 2022-23 Migration Program plan. Also, state-nominated visas are in high priority.

As per OECD, after Canada, Australia stands in the second position when it comes to labor and skills shortage in the world. The facts have been confirmed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Due to the pandemic, the country faced a cumulative loss of more than 600,000 people and the net overseas migration cannot be recovered until 2024.

To overcome this situation, it has been recommended to prepare guidelines that would clear visa processing backlogs and augment the migration rate.

Visa category	2021-2022 quota	2022-2023 quota	% Increase
Employer Nominated (subclass 186)	22,000	30, 000	36%
Skilled Nominated Visa State/Territory (subclass 190)	11,200	20, 000	79%
Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491)	11,200	25, 000	123%
Skilled Independent (subclass 189)	6,500	16,652	156%

Source: www.upgradabroad.com

Even the state is ready to grant Australian permanent residency to students on their arrival. For a minimum of two years, the expats will have to live or work in the state that nominated them.

They can work in any part of Australia but cannot move to any other place.

Under Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491), expats must live for a minimum of three years in a nominated region and earn a taxable income of AUD 53,000 each year to gain permanent residency in Australia.

Eligibility Criteria