Companies in Australia face new challenges and uncertainties in recruiting foreign workers, following Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s announcement in April that the Government will abolish the Subclass 457 Temporary Skilled Work visa and replace it with a new Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) visa that more tightly controls the migration and hiring of skilled foreign workers.

After the first set of changes was announced, BAL conducted a benchmarking survey to understand how the elimination of the 457 visa and other changes to skilled migration programmes are affecting corporate recruitment and talent retention, and how BAL can best support companies to minimise business disruption as further changes are implemented.

“Australia has historically relied heavily on migrant workers,” said Martin Russell, Director of BAL’s Melbourne office. “But with ‘Australia First’ changes aimed at prioritising Australian workers in the labour force, businesses will need to be extremely strategic in how they fulfill business needs.”

The full report, containing survey results, industry-specific analysis and recommendations for employers, is now available on BAL’s Global Trends web page.

This alert has been provided by BAL Australia. For additional information, please contact australia@bal.com.

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