Overseas recruitment is a valuable resource when it comes to employers being able to address labour shortages.
Employers are able to employ overseas workers when there are no Australian employees able to fill positions. In order for employers to recruit foreign workers they must sponsor them under a Temporary Skills Shortage visa (subclass 482) or a Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (provisional) (SESR) visa (subclass 494). To sponsor foreign workers, employers must undertake labour market testing as part of the nomination stage of the application process.
What is labour market testing?
Labour market testing is a recruitment campaign the business must conduct before being able to offer a job to a foreign national. It generally involves advertising the available position in Australia, ensuring employers try to find a suitable Australian candidate before seeking an overseas skilled worker. Labour market testing is considered proof that there are domestic labour shortages.
What’s involved in labour market testing?
Employers must run two advertisements prior to offering a position to an overseas worker. There are specific requirements for advertising roles. These include:
-
- The job must be advertised in Australia, in English and contain:
- the title or a description of the position
- the skills or experience required for the position
- the name of the approved sponsor or the name of the recruitment agency being used by the sponsor
-
- the salary for the position if the annual earnings for the position are lower than $96,400
- The job must be advertised in Australia, in English and contain:
-
- Publishing the ads in any of the following for at least four weeks:
- a prominent or professional recruitment website with national reach
- national print media (newspapers, magazines)
- national radio
-
- on the business’s website if the sponsor is an accredited sponsor
- Publishing the ads in any of the following for at least four weeks:
In addition to the two ads, roles must also be advertised on the Government’s Workforce Australia website and include all the information contained in the other two ads. Workforce Australia advertisements must run for at least four weeks.
Labour market testing must be conducted correctly. Failure to do so can result in the nomination application being refused.
The argument to scrap labour market testing
Business leaders are concerned that Australia is missing out on global talent due to the labour market testing rules. Labour market testing can often take up to a couple of months to complete so by the time a business has completed all the requirements, they have missed out on skilled workers because they have been offered jobs in other countries. In a climate where labour shortages are being experienced globally, there really is no time to waste. In industries where there are known shortages such as healthcare, IT and hospitality, labour market testing seems irrelevant and hence business leaders are calling for it to be scrapped.
Unions on the other hand are opposed to scrapping labour market testing citing that it would only provide a quick fix solution to the problem.
Labour market testing isn’t the only problem
While labour market testing is a time-consuming factor when it comes to overseas recruitment, it isn’t the only barrier.
Once an employer sets the wheels in motion for recruiting foreign workers, workers must apply for a visa and undergo skills assessments to ensure they are suitably qualified to fill the position.
Visa Solutions Australia’s Managing Director, Dan Engles says the real problem is the six to nine months that it takes for government and private agencies to certify overseas workers’ skills.
As with most things, Covid had an impact on skills authorities with many assessors leaving the industry. The lack of assessors has resulted in a backlog of skills assessments. Now employees are just sitting around for months waiting to get their skills assessed which in turn delays their visa approval.
‘One of the quick fixes is to allow more organisations to do skills assessment.’ – Dan Engles, Managing Director, Visa Solutions Australia
Will there be a resolution?
Home Affairs Minister, Clare O’Neill told businesses they would have to wait until after the budget for the overhaul of Australia’s migration system. It was announced in late 2022, the Labor Government would conduct a comprehensive review of Australia’s migration program.
For more information about labour market testing or any other aspect of migration, contact the team at Visa Solutions Australia.
