New arrivals 'almost twice as likely to be unemployed' in Australia, data shows
The Australian government's approach to welcome migrant workers to address the country's chronic workforce shortage has "totally and utterly failed," according to the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA).
IPA, citing data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), said the unemployment rate for people who arrived in Australia within the last five years hit 6.9% in October 2024.
This is much higher than the 3.8% unemployment rate for individuals who were born in Australia.
"ABS data shows new arrivals are almost twice as likely to be unemployed than those born here, disproving claims the current out-of-control migration intake is necessary to address Australia's worker shortage crisis," said Saxon Davidson, IPA Research Fellow, in a statement.
Source: ABS, IPA
"The federal government has repeatedly claimed record migration intakes were necessary to address Australia's chronic worker shortage, today's data reinforces that this approach has totally and utterly failed," Davidson added.
Overseas migration arrivals to Australia hit 718,400 people in the year ending March 31, according to the latest ABS data. This is an increase of 11,800 people, or 1.7%, since the previous year.
Davidson said "current unplanned migration levels" in Australia are unsustainable and are leaving Australians worse off across the nation.
To address workforce shortages, he reiterated IPA's previous call to adopt New Zealand-style reforms to get more pensioners back to work.
"It is lazy and short-sighted to rely on unplanned, mass migration to fill job vacancies when there are Australians ready and willing to work, but who are deterred from even being in the labour force because of the harsh tax penalties the government places on work," Davidson said.
