Business

Tuesday March 17, 2009

Australia slashes immigration as recession looms


CANBERRA: Australia will cut immigration for the first time in a decade, with recession looming and unemployment rising sharply, Immigration Minister Chris Evans said yesterday.

“We’re going to cut it from 133,500 to 115,000, so that’s about a 14% cut,” Evans told state radio. “We don’t want people coming in who are going to compete with Australians for limited jobs.”

Australia’s jobless rate spiked to 5.2% from 4.8% last month with the biggest impact felt by full-time workers. The centre-left government expects unemployment to reach 7% by mid-2010, although some economists fear it could go as high as 10%.

Evans, who removed hairdressers and cooks off Australia’s critical occupation shortage list at Christmas, said he was now adding foreign bricklayers, plumbers, carpenters and electricians from the list that guides skilled migration intake.

Further cuts were likely in the May 12 budget, local media said, leaving only health occupations, engineering and information technology skills as needed skills.

Australia is a nation of immigrants and has been enjoying a boom in new arrivals for the past decade to help meet labour shortages as a China-fuelled mining boom drove unemployment rates to 30-year lows.

But six of Australia’s major trading partners are now in recession and economic growth has stalled. The country moved a step closer to recession this month with the first contraction in eight years and the economy shrinking by 0.5%. — Reuters


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