This year, the influx of skilled migrant will be significantly reduced with the recently announced cut backs. Over the next three months, 18,500 or 14 percent of the annual intake will be slashed to protect local jobs.

The Government’s response to the economic crisis has resulted in the removal of building and manufacturing trades from the list of skilled migrants allowed to enter Australia . Plumbers, welders, bricklayers, carpenters and metal fitters are among the job categories being eliminated from the critical skills list. It is now limited mainly to health and medical, engineering and IT professions.

The drop for the 2009 financial year is from 133,500 skilled migrant intake down to 115,000. The cut shows the Government’s concern about the increasing unemployment rate which reached a new record in February rising from 4.8 percent to 5.2.

The skilled migrant workers cut is on the heels of the significant change in December. The immigration rules now limit the granting of a permanent Australian Visa to migrants sponsored by an employer or those in a occupation on the critical skills list.

“The Government will remove occupations from the list if demand for those skills can be satisfied by local labour,” says Immigration Minister Chris Evans. ” Australia still needs to maintain a skilled migration program but one that is more targeted so that migrant workers are meeting skills shortages and not competing with locals for jobs,” he adds.