Engineering job vacancies up 176 per cent, while skilled migrants feel overlooked by employers
ABC Pilbara / By Cameron Carr
Karen Huang says being from overseas makes finding skilled employment much more difficult.(ABC News: Amelia Searson)
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New data suggests almost half of migrants actively seeking a job as an engineer are currently unemployed, as job vacancies in the sector rise by 176 per cent.
Key points:
Australia's engineering sector is grappling with a skilled worker shortage
Despite having their qualifications recognised in Australia, migrants are less likely to find jobs compared to their Australian counterparts
A bias against workers not perceived as "local" is considered to be one of the main reasons
The National Skills Commission Labour Market Insights to June 2022 found 47 per cent of the group did not have work, although vacancy numbers in engineering continued to be the highest seen since 2012.
Engineers Australia CEO Romilly Madew said many skilled migrants in Australia could fill these roles but employers were biased against hiring migrants.
"Research shows there is a significant cohort of migrant engineers already in Australia who have long-term difficulties securing employment appropriate to their experience," she said.
"Our research found that employer bias associated with not being 'local' — whether it's experience, networks, standards, references, or qualifications — was the biggest culprit.
"Tapping into this under-utilised talent supply offers one immediate means of easing skills shortages."
Cultural background a factor
Karen Huang said she was not surprised migrants were struggling to find work in the sector.
Ms Huang moved to Australia from Taiwan in 2012 with a university degree and career aspirations.
Like many other skilled immigrants, she could only find work in hospitality.
She has lived in the Pilbara for about four years, surrounded by the country's mining and resources sector, which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has described as the "engine room of the economy".
Ms Huang, now the chair of the Northwest Multicultural Association, said many members moved to the region to work in the resources sector, but struggled to get a foot in the door, despite being qualified.
"It's very difficult when you come from a non-Australian culture, especially when it comes to interviews," she said.
"Skills are overlooked simply because bosses are concerned you won't fit in with your colleagues."
She said language skills could also be a barrier to employment.
"You can get knocked back from an entry-level job for a grammar mistake in a cover letter. They assume you're uneducated because your English isn't perfect," she said.
Ms Huang said she was hopeful more migrants would be able to find work in engineering and resources.
"I think if you want to do something, just do it, don't limit yourself, if you want to chase it, just keep trying, even if it take maybe hundreds of times or thousands of times, you'll get there," she said.
Experience not valued Engineers Australia is the federal government's approved authority to assess skills and competencies for the engineering profession.
Ms Madew said the organisation ran a migrant skill assessment to test people looking to become engineers.
"We're looking to see if their overseas qualifications and skills are comparative to the requirements of being an engineer in Australia," she said.
A woman with silver hair, wearing a pink blazer, smiles at the camera
Romilly Madew says poor hiring practices result in skilled migrants being overlooked.(Supplied)
After completing these programs, migrants can prove to employers that overseas studies and industry experience qualifies them to work in skilled professions.
Participants also satisfy English competency standards to confirm their language skills are up to scratch.
But even when there was recognition of prior learning and work, migrants who have completed these courses overwhelmingly said their international experience was not valued or was overlooked.
Ms Madew believed employers held an unconscious bias towards hiring non-Australians.
"Once the migration skills assessment is done, their experience and attributes should be recognised, but there is definitely a bias there," she said.
"It comes back to an idea that since they don't have local experience or networks that they won't succeed in the Australian workforce."
The ABC reached out to major resources and mining employers, which said they were committed to fair work and hiring practices.
Yeah, dunno. As an Australian, what do you think about that?
As to the article uh. It's a lot of words for not saying much at all. Looks like typical woke stuff, which is pretty much all that mainstream media can spit out these days.
What if they actually tried to address the matter? That is 1. Why there is a shortage of engineers and what we can do about it (maybe not *just* resorting to "migrants", whatever that really means these days), and 2. As to migrants, maybe there are yet other factors here that were conveniently not listed. The article is assuming that all people that were counted in those stats are all "skilled". Whatever that really means.
Finally, 3. Maybe those figures are also misleading?
Yeah, dunno. As an Australian, what do you think about that?
advertising for senior roles at entry level rates of pay! "why cant we find anyone fill this role" lol. Hire that desperate immigrant who doesnt know what the cost of living is over here, after a few years and gaining permanent status that immigrant also wants pay that matches the locals. More immigration will just continue driving down engineering salaries and exploiting the people brought over to do the roles.
Yeah, dunno. As an Australian, what do you think about that?
I smell BS going on somewhere here.
The majority of employers are not going to turn down the opportunity to employe a suitably qualified immigrant who will most likely work for less pay than a citizen.
Of course electronics is a very different field to other fields of engineering like construction, cival, mechnical, and even power/electrical.
...Businesses were required to advertise and "fail" to find a local to take a role before they could obtain the justification to bring over an immigrant...
Big difference between qualifications and experience.
Private companies are looking for engineers that can actually do successful things.
You are highly likely to be interviewed by the company owner that is an engineer himself.
He is going to be far more impressed by a long string of prior successful projects he may know something about, and a frank discussion about his projects and the problems you may be expected to solve.
Just fronting up with a piece of paper in your hand from a school, may not cut it in his eyes.
The public service is totally different. You will be interviewed by some non technical office person from the HR department.
They are likely to be really impressed if you are from an ethnic minority, are woke, and look a bit odd.
A degree in gender studies, or political science, would be perfect for a non technical engineering supervisory position.
How are those "migrants" even living in Australia if they are unemployed?
Are you guys paying for that much deadweight?
Or are we talking undeportable "humanitarian migrants" who self-identify as engineers
USA had the same rule for "skilled labor" (such as IT professionals, programmers, nurses and doctors...) work visas -- employers were suppose to advertise the job for a number of months and demonstrate to the immigration authority that no (legal US citizens or legal US work visa/status) qualified candidate applied. Only when that is proven can the H1B work visa application move forward. Now H1B's are handed out like candies, and I see more and more friends/colleagues laid off...
[... H1B Visa program ...]
In theory, a company has to get approval and then sponsor the immigrant. In theory, when the immigrant loses that job, they are supposed to self-deport or get some other company to sponsor them. In theory, no US citizen is available for the posting and the applicant fills a vital need and, in theory, they are paid the same as locals. In practice, I suspect it is a good deal different. Silicon Gulch is filled with H1B immigrants and there is a lot of friction when jobs get scarce.
[... H1B Visa program ...]
In theory, a company has to get approval and then sponsor the immigrant. In theory, when the immigrant loses that job, they are supposed to self-deport or get some other company to sponsor them. In theory, no US citizen is available for the posting and the applicant fills a vital need and, in theory, they are paid the same as locals. In practice, I suspect it is a good deal different. Silicon Gulch is filled with H1B immigrants and there is a lot of friction when jobs get scarce.
You are probably correct about this, but when I was working in the 1990's at small, growing companies we hired a good number of H1B engineers, and it wasn't because they would work for cheap.
In Silicon Gulch, the topic of H1B visas is pretty toxic. Nearly 3/4 of tech workers in the valley are foreign born according to the Mercury News. How does that possibly help locals?
[... H1B Visa program ...]
In theory, a company has to get approval and then sponsor the immigrant. In theory, when the immigrant loses that job, they are supposed to self-deport or get some other company to sponsor them. In theory, no US citizen is available for the posting and the applicant fills a vital need and, in theory, they are paid the same as locals. In practice, I suspect it is a good deal different. Silicon Gulch is filled with H1B immigrants and there is a lot of friction when jobs get scarce.
You are probably correct about this, but when I was working in the 1990's at small, growing companies we hired a good number of H1B engineers, and it wasn't because they would work for cheap. In our case these were highly-capable people, with skills and experience superior to the few "locals" who we could find. Often the foreign engineers were former associates of our own engineers, so we knew what they could do. The interview process was run my the engineering department (with HR participation), and the interviews were technical and deep. This was during times of industry growth, where qualified engineers were hard to find. The dynamics may be different during down times or in larger companies.
... ...
Nearly 3/4 of tech workers in the valley are foreign born according to the Mercury News. How does that possibly help locals?
... ...
As the article says, it costs around $10k just to sponsor an H1B. That cost gets paid somehow. Companies are not in the benevolence business.
... ...
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I think the solution is for "locals" to get the training and skills needed to be outstanding engineers (or outstanding whatever). I know I sound like the old geezer I am, but if our best and brightest locals are preparing for the field of video game test and review, or Influencer, or [any other unlikely-to-succeed field] then this is what happens. I'm not going to hire a bad engineer just because they look like me.
When those strategic core competence are carried by those with no long-term attachment (emotional investment) to the company, the company no longer has a future. [and more good stuff]
When those strategic core competence are carried by those with no long-term attachment (emotional investment) to the company, the company no longer has a future. [and more good stuff]
I agree with everything you have written.
Many of the H1 and Green Card holders we employed ended up becoming full-time residents, with families. Some later started their own companies, and hired locals as well as other non-locals. If we provide a good environment for success then good people tend to stick around. I hope we don't destroy that good environment.
[...] good grads, and reasonably bright grads (judging from their questions), but can't get on the first step of the ladder.
We, as engineers, should ask ourselves why this is the case. Has engineering become essentially unskilled labor, where we are replaceable cogs in the machine and "cost to employ" is the main factor by which we are judged?
We, as engineers, should ask ourselves why this is the case. Has engineering become essentially unskilled labor, where we are replaceable cogs in the machine and "cost to employ" is the main factor by which we are judged?There has always been a conflict in industry where good engineers are massively more effective than poor ones, and hard to find, but HR departments put their fingers in their ears and scream when faced with this reality.