Demand for 457 visas falls

Temporary Work Visa  subclass 457

Drop in 457 visas

Rising unemployment has dampened demand for migrant workers, with 40% fewer foreigners seeking work visas in Australia the last financial year.

• Number of foreigners applying for a 4 year work visa fell below 50,000 during 2013-2014
• Number of foreign tradies looking for work halved to 12,000
• Thousands of migrant workers flocked back to their home countries during the year, triggering the cancellation of nearly 29,000 work visas.
• Visa applications from foreigners for clerical and administrative jobs crashed 80% to just 660 during 2013-14, compared with 3370 the year before.
• The number of foreign managers applying to work here fell 41% to 9720.
• Visa applications from professionals fell almost a third to 24,810.
• The biggest employer of foreign workers — the tourism and hospitality sector — saw applications halve to 5330 during the year.
• Migrant work visa applications also halved in the construction sector — down to 4490 — and fell 55% in the mining industry, to 2600 applications.

Despite the slump in new ­applications, the number of ­migrants already working in Australia on the four-year 457 work visas crept 0.8 per cent higher last financial year to 108,870 workers.

More than 40,000 backpackers, foreign students and migrants on 457 work visas had their visas cancelled during 2013-14.

Unpublished Immigration Department data shows it cancelled 27,904 of the 457 visas during the year — 45% more than in 2012-13.

A spokesman for Assistant Minister for Immigration Michaelia Cash yesterday said most of the 457 visas had been cancelled “following the voluntary departure of a visa holder as a result of their employers advising of the end of employment’’.

Under changes introduced by the former Labor government last year, employers must advertise for local staff before hiring migrant workers.

Monash University demographer Bob Birrell, of the Centre for Population and Urban Research, said foreign students, backpackers and 457 visa workers accounted for one million workers in Australia. “Graduates are finding it tough because of competition from skilled migrants, particularly in nursing, ICT, accounting and ­engineering,’’ he said.