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Australia has increased demand for IT professionals - Apply for 457 visa now!
A new report released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), says that Australiaranks third in the Asia-Pacific region for Countries with the most positive competitive conditions for IT firms. Only South Korea, and Taiwan do better. Positive competitive conditions; The country's quality of IT and communications infrastructure and the overall business environment.
Additionally, the report, entitled, "The Means to Compete: Benchmarking IT industry Competitiveness", also ranks Australia 5th in the world in terms of the overall competitiveness of its IT industry; The US is in 1st place followed by Japan, South Korea, and the UK.
Australia also performed extremely well in terms of Advanced IT and communications infrastructure as it was ranked fourth in the world, preceded only by US, Canada, and Switzerland and ranked first in the Asia-Pacific region.
Australia's highly regarded IT infrastructure is thanks to extensive PC ownership, high broadband penetration at 33%, topped only by the Netherlands and South Korea, and substantial spending on IT. The report also stated that Australia's mobile phone penetration is also high at 94.5%.
Australia's IT industry is experiencing an increased demand for IT professionals as Australia's IT industry braces itself for a serious skills shortage; Thousands of new IT positions need to be filled. Also, due to the skills shortages affecting the industry salaries have been driven up, creating a number of highly paid IT job opportunities.
Many Australian employers are now looking oversees to recruit and then employ skilled IT professionals on Australia's 457 visas.
19 January 2012
ATO FOCUS ON LAFHA COULD IMPACT 457 VISAS
Living Away From Home Allowance (LAFHA) is the delivery of funds from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) through an employer when a staff member is required to travel away from their usual residence on business for an extended amount of time and to support there need to cover the expenses incurred as a result of being relocated for their work.
Individuals employed on contracts that require fly-in fly-out (FIFO) arrangements were able to receive the benefits, as were officials transferred to remote postings.
In some cases, temporary residents in Australia - such as those on the 457 visa - were technically considered to be living far from their permanent residence for work purposes and as such were eligible to receive the LAFHA.
However, the changes proposed by the ATO could see these payments come to an end as the taxation office seeks to better regulate these concession payments.
It aims to limit the availability of LAFHA payments to those immigration visa holders who have an established home in Australia and are living and working away from this location.
For international workers planning on travelling to Australia for employment, this could give them a reason to re-evaluate their circumstances and consider the prospects offered by a more permanent visa solution.
This is especially true for those migrants who are planning on entering the mining and resources sector - which is well known for its reliance on FIFO arrangements - as they may need to review their living arrangements in advance.
19 January 2012
BHP Bilton approved for significant expansion of its existing mining and processing operation at Olympic Dam in northern Adelaide.
The ore body at Olympic Dam is the world’s fourth largest copper resource largest know deposit of uranium and rich deposits of gold and silver
Constructing the various elements of the proposed expansion would require a construction workforce averaging 4,000 with a peak of 6,000 people until full production is reached.
Long term a doubling up of the existing operational workforce to 8,000 is expected and estimated that an additional 15,000 jobs would be created in South Australia to support this expansion.
With Australia’s population growth driven largely by overseas immigration, this represents a great opportunity for skilled construction workers to migrate into the Lucky Country, either temporarily or permanently.
19 January 2012
http://www.news.com.au/olympic-dam-project-to-inject-a-86bn/story-e6frea6u-1226166275856