Australia Actively Seeking US Workers

Sydney Opera House
Photo by Fernando Nunes

Imagine the following scenario. You've been unemployed for months, you're desperate for work, you get a job offer from Australia and decide "screw this, I'm off". You get to Australia and then find out you still can't work. They have to assess your skills first, a process that could take months. If your skills are found wanting, you get sent packing. That would be a  nightmare.

It's no longer a nightmare. An Australian Senate inquiry found that Australia is producing less than half the engineers it needs, with many projects simply not getting started due to the worker shortage. So Australia came up with a cunning plan.

The US is in very bad shape. Right now, half of all Americans are low income or in poverty, the US unemployment rate, while improving, is still disastrous, and the Australians have a skill shortage.

The word you're looking for is synergy.

Australia is now trying to attract America's skilled workers. Instead of going to Australia and waiting potentially months to work while your skills assessment is taking place, you can get your assessment in the US and fly over after it's done.

You can read about the new "points tested visa" process (pdf) and check out the Australian government's "Immigration and Visas" website.

And an HSBC survey found that Australia is the number one destination for expats.