Australia experiencing shortage of hospitality and tourism workers

Australia is looking for immigrants to come work in their hospitality and tourism industry. These industries are short staffed; The Australian Government needs to attract 36,000 cooks, waiters, and bartenders as soon as possible.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen confirmed the government is also looking for another 56,000 hospitality workers to immigrate to Australia by 2015. Experts say high-paying mining jobs are luring away Australian workers from the retail, hospitality, and tourism industry.

"Tourism injects around $35 billion a year into the Australian economy and the Government is acting to ensure labour and skills issues impacting on the tourism industry's competitiveness are addressed under the National Long-Term Tourism Strategy, Tourism 2020," said Australian Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson.

In attempts to reduce industry shortages of skilled workers, the Australian Government has announced a new proposed template labour agreement. The agreement would allow employers to employ foreigners in Australia in many different positions in the hospitality and tourism industry including as waiters, chefs, bar attendants, and hotel managers.

A template labour agreement is an agreement between the Australian government and employers which allows them to employ foreign workers in Australia to fill skills shortages. In this case, a template labour agreement would allow employers to nominate workers in the hospitality industry for the 457 visa even if their occupations are not listed on the approved occupation list for the 457 visa.

"Approved employers could nominate workers for temporary skilled subclass 457 visas using the template, enabling workers to be granted visas where they meet the requirements," he said. "Of course, employers would need to show they are doing their best to employ and train domestic workers and paying market rates."

Those interested in immigrating to Australia for tourism, hospitality, or retail positions can apply under the Australian 457 visa program, a temporary business visa which allows employers to sponsor overseas workers.

The template labour agreement, which would address skill shortages in the hospitality industry, is now open for public comment until 16 March 2012.

Study Migrate offers a variety of programmes in Australia. Please visit our Australian page for more information: http://www.globalvisasupport.com/australia.html