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September 28, 2011 – Good news for potential applicants for work visas for Australia!

Australia’s mining jobs on the up!

The total mining workforce in Australia is said to tilt to more than double in the next 20 years, from the estimated 693,000 mining jobs to 1.45 million Australia-wide and with three times as many jobs being created outside the mines.

Australia’s mining workforce accounts for 7% of total job creation, and job growth in mining and mining-related work — according to the Department for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations — is forecast to increase by more than a 100% by 2031.
According to recruiting firm Hays, there is an acute demand for mining, engineering and geology professionals across Australia, which has seen an aggressive recruitment within the mining sector in the race for talent.
Moreover, according to the Managing Director of Hays Asia Pacific, Nigel Heap, that for over the past 12 months, 44% of companies has reported an increase in their operational staff levels, despite tighter credit conditions, with 74% of organizations Australia-wide were indicting that they expect that for over the next 12 months business activity will increase.
Figures from the Australia Bureau of Statistics revealed that 226,000 people are directly employed in mining in Australia, of which 66,800 are employed in Queensland’s burgeoning resources sector.
Minister Stirling Hinchliffe, Queensland Employment, Skills and Mining Minister says that $80 billion in new projects have just been approved across the state and this translates to 38,000 construction and operational jobs in the Queensland resources sector between now and 2014-15.
With an estimated 7500 engineering fabrication tradespeople required across the state, and only 2930 apprentices currently in training, this growth in mining has opened up related employment opportunities in Queensland.

Work Visa to Australia

With these high demand for skilled workers, Australia’s government is said to open its door to “semi-skilled” workers as guidelines are released during the announcement of the May budget for the new Enterprise Migration Agreements (EMAs).
Under the guidelines, Australian employers are allowed to bring in semi-skilled overseas workers under work visa to Australia in order to work on resource projects and associated infrastructure, including roads, rail and ports, if they can show a “genuine need that cannot be met from the Australian labor market.
Skilled occupations such as engineering will also pre-qualify for the 457 visas to Australia issued under EMAs; however, this recent move will only be offered only to resource companies with capital expenditure of more than $2 billion and a peak workforce of more than 1500 staff.
According to a Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) spokesperson, there was an increase of 40% in the number of 457 visas granted to skilled foreigners working temporarily in Australia in the past year, with the Immigration Department approving 54,360 visas during 2010-11.

Source:
miningAustralia.com.au