Call for overseas workers intake

„ ELIZABETH FRIAS

BUSINESS NSW chief Daniel Hunter has called on the federal government to ease pressure on skills shortages by ensuring a reasonable number of migrants remain on the pipeline.

Any drop in the allocated 15,536 skilled visa workers annual intake would hit Western Sydney’s business and economy hardest under the current economic condition, Mr Hunter said.

Those businesses in Western Sydney and regional areas would be mostly impacted as they are “already dealing with skills shortages driven by large infra- structure projects vacuuming up many of the available workers,” Mr Hunter said.

“International skilled mi grant numbers need to remain high if we want to see the NSW economy continue to soar,” Mr Hunter said.

Latest statewide quarterly data for March shows pro ductivity has dropped back to 2019 levels.

“It takes time to build human capital through education and training, but skilled migrants could be an immediate solution to arrest this downward trend and support economic growth,” Mr Hunter said.

“An increase in the supply of workers could ease wage growth pressures, help contain inflation and ensure the state’s 870,000 plus businesses are nurtured.

“Businesses are already facing a cluster of issues including sharp rises in interest rates, insurance costs and broader inflation.”

For 2022-2023, the federal government allocated NSW with 15,536 visas across the Skilled Nominated (Subclass

190) visa, Skilled Work Regional (Subclass 491) visa and Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP) classes. Housing these extra workers would also pose a challenge to the state and federal governments and to communities where they would be filling in workforce shortage.

Mr Hunter said all levels of governments must also ensure that “there are enough houses for everyone in the community.”

“Rather than shrinking the economy as a band-aid solution to the housing crisis, the federal government must work with all levels of government to address a chronic shortfall in the supply of new homes,” Mr Hunter said.