Tuesday 14 August 2012

Recruiting around the globe to cover Skills Shortages

Whatever the state of your economy there will be localised skills shortages as well as the global ones most economies struggle with.

Education in the Middle East, Engineering worldwide with even the mighty German economy struggling. Healthcare - try getting a dental appointment in Australia or IT programming in Western Europe. Natural resources skills shortages are slowing, or is it that demand is down, as the order book for end products is reduced. Every market will be slightly different but with common trends and migration of talent to where it is needed has occurred for 100's of years and looks set to accelerate.

International Recruitment agencies can monitor the tip of the economic migration iceberg through site registrations and the European Recruitment Agency, part of Skills Provision International is no exception.
Registrations fall directly in line with economic performance and rates of unemployment. PIIGSUK (Portuguese, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain and the UK) are seeing the highest registrations but the number of French professionals looking to bale out since the recent elections might be the start of another trend.

An increasing number of Spaniards are looking to flee the country's recession. Data from Spain's National Statistics Institute showed the number abandoning its shores was up 44% in the first six months of this year, with an estimated 40,625 Spaniards choosing to emigrate. Five times that number of resident foreigners also departed including many retired Brits with many more wanting to leave but who can’t sell their properties.
Italy's unemployment soared to 10.8% in June, from 7.8% a year ago, according to its statistics bureau Istat.
Greeks, Italians, Spaniards and Portuguese are flocking to Germany, Europe's biggest economy, reportedly looking for jobs.

Germany has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the EU, at 5.2% in June, and Spain and Greece the highest at 24.6% and 22.6% but even worse is youth unemployment at 50% plus.

According to Germany's statistics office Destatis, Germany experienced its largest immigration increase in 15 years in 2011, because of a surge in EU migrants.There were 90% (or 11,000) more Greeks, and 52% (or 7000) more Spaniards. It had a net 1.7% increase in foreigners from "crisis-affected countries" in 2011, resulting in a slight 0.1% growth in overall population, which is the first increase in a decade.

However, these numbers are small in overall terms and European skilled labour is looking for other outlets and we will continue to see a sharp increase in migration to places like Australia that still reports material skills shortages.

We expect to see Australia increase its marketing in Europe but the immigration process currently takes too long and there is a requirement for a hybrid visa lying somewhere between the working holiday visa (known as a 417 visa) and a fully fledged Employer sponsored visa (known as a 457 visa) enabling people to move quickly with the surety of work but not necessarily obtaining automatic long term rights to stay in Australia.

The new visa could also be used to address migration patterns. Migrants from Asia tend to favour large cities whereas equal/greater demand exists in smaller cities and in outback (rural areas.)

As a European, possibly naive commentator, the shifting of skills from one country to another seems obvious and we see no difference to moving a Polish Engineer to the UK to sending a motor mechanic to Brisbane or sending ESL Teachers from around the globe to fill skills shortages in Saudi Arabia. It is a question of a decent job description, a competitive remuneration package then finding the requisite proven skills including where appropriate IELTS (www.ielts.org), and local skills recognition.

Candidates are welcome to register but please put the hard yards in up front. You won't get an international job with a 5 year old CV.

If you wish to recruit from Europe or elsewhere around the world then please get in touch using our quick enquiry form

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