129,000 PR visas were granted for skilled applicants.
Approximately 50% of those were from India or China.
The top of the list features these skills:
- Cooks and chefs: 8000 PRs granted in 2012-13.
- Accountants: 5700.
- Software engineers: 2160.
- IT business analysts: 1550.
- Hairdressers: 1500.
Monash University migration researcher Dr Bob Birrel claimed that the number of highly skilled applicants wishing to enter the country is now falling, causing immigration officials to fill their quotas with ‘warehoused applicants’.
“Now that demand for migration is tapering off a bit they are obliged to deal with these applicants…They are filling up their quota with these warehoused applicants, that’s why we’re getting so many cooks.”
“The program has a life of its own and it’s continuing at very high levels notwithstanding the sharp downturn in the need for skilled migrants,” he said.
The DIBP’s 2012-13 Migration Program Report reported that:
- the skilled migration system focused on migrants to help fill critical skill needs, particularly in regional areas.
- This included almost 50,000 places nominated by employers and state or territory governments, and 44,000 in the skilled independent category.
- There were more than 114,000 applicants waiting to be processed for skilled migration as of June 30 2013.