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Aussie returning to their homeland
Australia, November 9, 2009 – More and more Australian are coming back to their home in Australia on their extended working holidays in the UK. Numbers has been increased throughout the year in which Caroline Rafferty first noticed the trend at the start of the year when tough new changes to the UK’s Highly Skilled Migrant Visa laws came into effect.
An online jobs agency that links ex-pat workers in the UK with firms in Australia was inundated with requests to help with a smooth work transition home. Ms Rafferty, the general manager of Track Me Back said that “We more than tripled our business since January, with a huge influx of expats wanting to make the jump home,” Ms Rafferty, whose clients include NAB and ANZ, Telstra and state education departments. These aren’t people necessarily being made redundant, but people seeing chances.”
“There is a lot more positive opportunities again in the Australian jobs market and they are taking advantage of that, as are Australia companies now actively looking for talented Aussies wanting to come home” she added.
The dollar has hit at an 11-year high next to the sterling and over recent months unemployment in Australia has been at a 33-year low.
Ms Rafferty said many had decided to return home with the new UK visa laws, introduced in April, requiring Australians living in the UK to hold a Masters Degree and earn at least $40,000 in order to qualify for the Highly Skilled Migrant Visa.
Digital marketing project manager Lisa Taylor, who was born in Melbourne, has spent five years in London, but is relocating to Brisbane next month to take on another work challenge. She said better weather was a factor, but she was also buoyed by economic prospects. “I haven’t had a problem working here, but a lot of my Australian friends have, so I know quite a few people who are now out of work here going back. Four of my friends have left or are leaving – it just seems so much more positive over there.
On average, 2500 Australians a month return home from the UK during the northern winter.
Source:
news.com.au
