RELEASE OF PERSPECTIVES ON MIGRANTS, 2010 (cat. no. 3416.0)
As advised last issue, the latest edition of Perspectives on Migrants (cat. no. 3416.0) was released on 5 March 2010. The articles provide further insight into migrants' labour force experiences and conditions, based on recently released data from the ABS Monthly Population Survey. The articles explore differences in looking for work (including employment barriers) and the nature of the work that is found, respectively, across different migrant cohorts and in comparison to the Australian born population. Selected key findings are provided below.
JOB SEARCH EXPERIENCE OF MIGRANTS
This article uses data from the Survey of Job Search Experience 2009.
Part 1 of the article discusses the 'unemployed'. Of the total 599,600 unemployed persons, 33% (196,400) were born overseas. Recent migrants accounted for 42% (83,100 persons) of the overseas born unemployed and 58% (113,300 persons) were long term migrants. Almost one in six (17%) of all unemployed persons had never worked and were looking for their first job. A further 67% of the unemployed had prior work experience in the last 2 years whilst 16% of the unemployed had previously worked, with their last job longer than 2 years ago. These proportions relating to prior experience were similar for the unemployed Australian born and overseas born populations. Almost one quarter (24%) of unemployed persons who had previously worked and had held a job in the previous two years, reported Labourer as the occupation of their last job. For overseas born unemployed persons, although Labourer was the most common occupation group (23%), 18% reported their last occupation as Professionals and this was higher than the Australian born unemployed (9%).
Part 2 discusses 'Job starters' - recently employed persons. As at July 2009, there were a total of 1.3 million employed persons aged 15 years and over who started their current job (lasting for 2 or more weeks) in the previous 12 months. These job starters represented about 1 in 8 of the total employed population. Nearly three-quarters (74% or 994,500) were Australian-born with the balance (26% or 348,800 persons) born overseas. The majority of job starters (89%) were 'employees'. The composition of job starter occupations shows that Professionals were the largest occupation group of new starters across all population groups. For most migrant groups (excluding long term migrants) the second most common reported occupation was Labourers, whereas for both Australian born job starters and long term migrants, the second largest occupation group was Clerical and administrative workers.
The data cubes relating to this article are available to download free of charge from the Downloads tab of this product on the ABS website.
FORMS OF EMPLOYMENT - A COMPARISON OF AUSTRALIAN AND OVERSEAS BORN PERSONS
This article examines the working arrangements of both Australian born and overseas born people in the labour market using data from the November 2008 Forms of Employment Survey. The data show that just over one quarter of employed people in the labour force at the time of the survey were migrants. Of the 10.7 million employed people in Australia, 2.8 million were born overseas. 'Employee' is the most typical form of employment in the Australian labour market. Of the 7.8 million employed people that were born in Australia, 81% were employees. This was similar to the proportion of the overseas born population (80% of the 2.8 million employed migrants). For both populations, females were more likely than males to be working as employees.
A higher proportion of migrants (26%) were employed as Professionals than Australian born persons (20%), reflecting the focus of the migration program over recent years on the recruitment of skilled migrants. On the other hand, more migrants (13%) were employed as Labourers than Australian born workers (11%). In contrast, a higher proportion of Australian born persons (12%) were employed as sales workers than overseas born persons (8%).
The data cubes relating to this article are available to download free of charge from the Downloads tab of this product on the ABS website.
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