Business opportunities in Australia set to rise

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Created on Wednesday, 08 February 2012 17:49

Written by Editorial staff

A combination of increased business activity and holiday plans could see the number of Australian migration visas applied for increase in 2012.

The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show that the number of businesses in the country has grown successively across the last two financial years.

In 2009-10 there was an increase of 3.6 per cent recorded across all industries, while 2010-11 saw a 0.4 per cent positive shift.

This brought the total number of registered commercial enterprises operating in Australia on June 30 2011 to 2.1 million.

The majority of these were in the construction industry - with 17 per cent of firms involved in building both industrial and residential properties.

These numbers could be a flow-on effect from the resource boom experienced across the country - with new projects increasing demand for plant, residential housing and office space.

The fact that the second-highest number is found across professional, scientific and technical services seems to back up this theory - as secondary providers and contractor companies step in to fill in any gaps in the workforce.

While these figures could provide news of better foreign employment prospects - and a subsequent increase in the number of immigration visa applications - they are followed by a second bout of ABS information.

According to the bureau, more Australian citizens have been travelling overseas on short-term trips than ever before - in many cases leaving their jobs vacant, sometimes for months on end.

In 2011, there were 7.8 million trips made by residents to international destinations - with 57 per cent of these being purely for holiday purposes.

While it could be argued that the volume of these absentees may be influenced by their age - young students and graduates making the most of a gap year, the median age for these short-term tourists was shown to be between 45 and 49 years of age.

This particular bracket is noted as being around the middle zone of a career - such as experienced workers not yet ready for permanent retirement.

The questions for many businesses is how to cover their positions on a short-term basis while making sure that there is a role for them to return to.

To this end, it could be that Australian firms begin to make use of the progressive migration agreements that re being employed by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship to gain access to skilled and semi-skilled workers to cover their labour needs - assuming they are unable to source workers locally.