A total of 6,000 Australian skilled visas have been released by the federal government in an effort to attract a greater number of migrants to the country. The visas are up for grabs until June 2008 and will take the national quota of Australia visa applications up to 108,500.

The decision to increase the number of visas available to new migrants was made by Immigration Minister Chris Evans just four days after Australia’s levels of unemployment reached a 33-year low, falling to 4.1 per cent.

As companies become more and more desperate, the Australian government has acknowledged the urgency to recruit as many migrants with Australian skilled visas as possible.

Senator Evans stated: "Employer-sponsored visas are the highest priority because they put a migrant worker directly into a skilled job”.

The Immigration minister has devised a package whereby Australia will be in a position to attract greater number of skilled workers on both a temporary and permanent basis. He claims that the package has the potential to recruit thousands of skilled professionals to the country in the short term, and in the long term, would help address inflationary issues.

Part of Evans’s migration package offers workers on Working Holiday visas a further year-long extension to their stay in the country if they spend three months or more working in the construction industry of rural Australia.

“Extending this visa concession to work in construction industry in regional Australia could attract a further 5000 workers to that industry alone,” said the Immigration Minister.

The Bureau of Statistics has revealed a record 183,400 jobs vacant in November, a number that is thought to be growing by roughly 15% per year.