Temporary migrants face extra barriers while job-seeking during COVID-19

The pandemic’s economic fallout has the Reserve Bank of Australia predicting the unemployment rate is likely to rise to 10 per cent by the end of the year, affecting not just local workers, but many temporary migrants whose job hunting efforts have become more challenging than ever.

Temporary migrants in Victoria will now be able to access a one-off $800 emergency payment if they are in severe financial hardship. Source: Supplied

A recent Hays survey of 1,100 employers conducted in June found that nearly one in five currently have a recruitment freeze and over a third are still hiring.

Cawley is seeing job demands in health care, aged care, procurement, pharmaceutical research, online marketing, manufacturing, IT, supply and logistics, banking, cleaning and mining.

He says with some overseas call centres incapacitated by outbreaks, there are opportunities for short-term workers as Australian businesses rapidly transition to set up onshore call centres to fill the gap.

And IT professionals don’t always need local experience to land work in Australia.

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