Passage 4 Australia’s Skills Shortage
澳大利亚技工短缺 《经济学人》

[00:00]When Jetstar, a low-cost carrier,
[00:04]revealed recently that it was planning to hire
[00:08]more than 75 pilots from Britain, America and South Africa,
[00:14]it was seeking a solution to a problem facing many employers across the country:
[00:20]a severe shortage of skilled labor.
[00:24]With an economy in its 17th year of uninterrupted growth,
[00:29]Australia's skills shortage has never been worse.
[00:33]People are crying out for plumbers, doctors and nurses.
[00:38]In states that are booming thanks to a mining bonanza-Western Australia,
[00:44]Queensland and South Australia-engineers,
[00:49]surveyors and truck drivers are in short supply.
[00:53]One state-owned water authority complains
[00:56]that it is losing truckers to mining companies offering A$100,000 ($96,000)
[01:07]a year-more than double their previous salary.
[01:12]In many rich countries where immigration
[01:15]is a politically sensitive matter-America,
[01:19]Britain and Ireland-the number of immigrants seems to be falling
[01:24]as the economy turns down. Not in Australia. The Labor government,
[01:31]under Kevin Rudd,
[01:33]is looking to increase the numbers of foreigners allowed to settle.
[01:39]On May 13th his government said that
[01:43]Australia would take 190,300 immigrants next year, a rise of 25% on this year.
[01:55]The biggest jump comes in the proportion of those chosen
[01:59]for their skills in a booming economy:
[02:02]at 133,500 they now account for a record 70% of the total intake.
[02:11]These so-called "permanent" settlers tell only a part of the story.
[02:17]With another 100,000 arrivals expected under a short-term visa scheme
[02:23]that allows employers to fill urgent job vacancies from outside Australia,
[02:30]the total intake is likely to be closer to 300,000.
[02:35]Other changes will make still more foreigners available for work.
[02:40]That approach, says Chris Evans, the immigration minister,
[02:44]was designed for a world in which people did not move much.
[02:49]Today, he argues, the country needs a policy fit for a world
[02:54]in which people move often for work.
[02:57]He points out that 500,000 people with "work rights" entered Australia last year:
[03:05]students and holiday-makers, as well as those on work visas.
[03:10]And the country still suffers skilled-labor bottlenecks.
[03:15] Australia is in some respects paying a price for failing to invest in skills
[03:21]and infrastructure to meet the demands of a "once-in-50-years boom".
[03:27]Not long ago, the sight of a Labor government bowing to demands from bosses
[03:34]and opening the gates to foreign workers would have produced howls of anguish
[03:39]from unions. Not now. With unemployment at a 30-year low,
[03:46]falling union membership and an ageing domestic workforce,
[03:50]the Rudd government can afford to be bold about using immigration
[03:55]as a tool of economic management.
[03:58]Mr. Evans says that from now on immigration will play a bigger role
[04:04]in the "structure of Australia's workforce".
[04:07]He can probably count on Australians tolerating
[04:10]that so long as the boom continues.