Work Visa for IT Workers Increases by 50 percent

Work Visa for IT Workers Increases by 50 percent

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November 2, 2011 – As demand for seasoned IT professionals stepping up as large public sector upgrades gather steam and Australia’s IT industry braces itself for a serious skills shortage, with more than a 1000 IT new positions to fill in Canberra alone, the number of overseas IT workers on 457 work visa to Australia spikes up.

An increase of up to 50 percent of the 457 working visa for Australia was recorded in more than a year as Australian employers demand to bring in highly skilled foreign IT workers to Australia on 457 working Australia visa increases.
Subclass 457 work visas Australia or formally known as Temporary Business (Long Stay) – Standard Business Sponsorship (Subclass 457) work visa for Australia are temporary visas that allow overseas workers to stay and work in Australia for a period of between one day and four years. They are the most commonly used work visa in Australia for employers to sponsor overseas workers to work in Australia on a temporary basis.
According to Peter Acheson, Peoplebank chief executive, since July of last year, companies seeking specialist IT skills from offshore had rapidly picked up. This is attributed to the major system enhancement projects across all of Australia’s federal agencies, and the corporate sector gearing up for a 10 year ‘refresh’, where many organizations are upgrading their platforms and planning major infrastructure overhauls.
Added to that, Australia’s biggest banks are collectively spending billions on IT overhauls, and the implementation of the new Smart Grid has required upgrades right across the utilities sector.
Moreover, the booming resources sector is also heavily investing in IT systems, which is said to support and boost every stage of the mining process, from design right through to the measurement of output.
A dramatic increase in demand for people on 457 working visa in Australia has been recorded since about the middle of last year through to now. An increase has been specifically seen in notoriously tight areas such as SAP people, those with strong experience in managing major projects and more management-type skills.
According to Department of Immigration and Citizenship Report 2010-11, which was recently released, there was an increase in the number of 457 work visa for Australia granted for skilled workers in the information and communications technology sector, showing 5430 primary visas granted. Developer programmers were named as the top nominated occupation for the year.